Hiill!! 


tihvavy  of  Che  theological  ^eminarjp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 

Rufus  H.   LeFevre 

BX'i378 


Cljrigtianttp  anb  tfje 
Social  Meal 


21  1952 


.<$-. 


CHRISTIANITY 

and  the 

SOCIAL  WEAL 


By 


^ 


CYRUS  JEFFRIES  KEPHART 


1914 

THE  OTTERBEIN  PRESS 

W.  R.  Funk.  Agtnt 

DAYTON.  OHIO 


FOREWORD 

Profoundly  convinced  of  the  need  of  social 
regeneration ; 

Believing  that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
alone  reveals  the  conditions  and  the  means  of 
such  regeneration; 

Recognizing  the  Church  of  the  living  God 
as  the  agency  for  the  promulgation  of  the 
Gospel ; 

This  book  is  sent  forth  in  the  hope  that 
it  may  contribute  in  some  slight  degree  to  the 
realization  of  these  ends. 

The  Author 


f1 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  I 
Christianity  a  Social  System 


Chapter  II 
Social  Principles  of  Christianity         .         15 


Chapter  III 
Social  Principles,  Continued         .         .        31 


Chapter  IV 
Causes  of  Poverty         ....         55 


Chapter  V 
The  Abatement  of  Poverty  .         .         79 


Chapter  VI 
The  Problem  of  Divorce        .         .         .       104 


Chapter  VII 
The  Problem  of  Vice  and  Crime    .         .       123 


Chapter  VIII 
Social  Principles  Applied     .         .         .       141) 


Chapter  IX 
The  Church  and  the  Social  Weal         .       IfiO 


Chapter  X 
Life  Spiritual  and  Service  Social         .       193 


I 

CHRISTIANITY  A  SOCIAL   SYSTEM 


CHRISTIANITY  A  SOCIAL  SYSTEM 

Man  is  instinctively,  universally,  and  tenaciously 
religious — conscious  of  supreme  relations  and 
supreme  obligations  to  God. 

He  is  also  instinctively  and  unyieldingly 
hopeful  of  immortality,  believing  that  some- 
where, somehow,  he  shall  live  forever. 

He  also  believes  that  his  welfare  in  the  life 
to  come  in  some  way  depends  upon  his  recon- 
ciliation to  and  fellowship  with  God  here. 

These  facts  go  far  to  account  for  the  em- 
phasis that  man  has  always  placed  upon  religion 
and  religious  duties.  These  sentiments  and  con- 
victions have  also  contributed  largely  to  de- 
termining the  historic  interpretation  of  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  Christ. 

E^xpressing  the  same  truth  a  little  differently, 
man  has  always  been  looking  for  the  immortal 
life;  has  viewed  the  present  brief  life  as  of  small 
value  as  compared  with  the  prospective,  unend- 
ing life.     Many  Christian  teachers  have  seen  in 

3 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 


the  teacliiDg  of  Jesus  little  except  the  pointing 
of  the  Avay  to  the  future.  When  he  says,  "I  am 
come  that  they  might  have  life,"  many  have  un- 
derstood him  to  be  speaking  only  of  the  future 
life.  His  moral  precepts  have  been  viewed  by 
many  as  requiring  right  conduct  here  chiefly  as  a 
condition  of  divine  favor  hereafter. 

In  other  words,  many  have  viewed  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus,  both  ethical  and  religious,  as  hav- 
ing value  chiefly  if  not  wholly  because  of  their 
relation  to  the  future.  The  kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  been  viewed  by  many  as  wholly  a,  spir- 
itual kingdom  to  be  enjoyed  only  after  this  life 
has  closed;  the  reign  of  Jesus  Christ  as  wholly 
a  spiritual  reign  to  be  enjoyed  only  upon  admit- 
tance to  heaven. 

The  present  life  has  been  looked  upon  by 
many  as  essentially  "a  vale  of  tears,'-  a  stage 
upon  which  to  prepare  for  the  future ;  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  attainment  of  the  fellowship  with 
God  necessary  to  preparation  for  the  life  to  be. 

By  this  it  is  meant  that  the  church  has  largely 
failed  to   see  the  interest  that  Jesus   takes  in 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SOCIAL   SYSTEM 


man  in  the  present  life ;  that  much  of  his  teacli- 
ing  relates  specifically  to  this  life,  thus  indicat- 
ing the  value  and  importance  of  the  life  here 
and  now. 

In  failing  to  see  clearly  this  dii'ect  relation 
of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  to  present  conditions, 
the  church  has  failed  in  large  part  to  give  spe- 
cific attention  to  the  practical  interpretation  and 
application  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  setting 
forth  the  fundamental  condition  for  the  creation 
of  right  conditions  in  human  society  now. 

It  is  reason  for  great  rejoicing  that  this  in- 
adequate estimate  of  the  Christian  system  is  be- 
ing rapidly  displaced,  and  that  it  is  being  recog- 
nized with  increasing  clearness  that  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  have  immediate  and  direct  relation 
to  the  present  life  as  well  as  to  the  future;  that 
it  is  his  purpose  to  regenerate  and  transform  so- 
ciety as  truly  as  to  regenerate  and  transform  in- 
dividual lives ;  that  "the  government"  is  increas- 
ingly "upon  his  shoulders"  now;  that  he  is 
establishing  a  righteousness  whose  "fruit  shall 


^  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

be  peace,"  and  its  effects  "quietness  and  assur- 
ance" in  human  society  on  earth. 

That  Christianity  is  a  social  as  well  as  a 
religious  system,  is  clearly  shown  by  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  and  of  those  associated  with  him. 

John  the  Baptist,  the  herald  of  Jesus,  said, 
"Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." 
When  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  came  to 
liim,  punctiliously  exact  in  their  religious  observ- 
ances he  said  to  them,  "Do  not  boast  simply  that 
you  are  children  of  Abrahajii,  but  live  lives  that 
will  prove  that  you  have  turned  away  from  hypo- 
critical dishonesty,  to  lives  of  religious  and 
social  helpfulness."  To  the  multitudes  he  said, 
"Go  and  serve  your  fellow-men.  If  you  have  two 
coats,  give  one  to  some  one  that  has  none;  and 
if  you  have  food,  share  it  with  those  who  have 
none."  To  the  thieving  publicans  he  said,  "Stop 
your  thieving.  Collect  no  more  in  taxes  than 
justice  authorizes."  To  tlie  soldiers,  "Stop  ex- 
tortion by  violence.  Quit  using  your  position, 
your  military  equipment  and  authority  as  aids 
to  the  gratification  of  selfish  greed."     These  are 


CHRISTIANITY  A   SOCIAL   SYSTEM 


not  exact  quotations  of  language,  but  they  are 
yerji  exact  quotations  of  tliought  as  indicated  by 
the  language  used. 

With  John  there  was  no  cant  about  ritual- 
istic observances,  but  a  call  to  social  righteous- 
ness as  proof  of  heart  repentance.  Josephus  sug- 
gests that  it  is  altogether  j)ossible  if  not  probable 
that  John  lost  his  head  because  Herod  feared 
that  such  teaching  might  excite  a  revolution.  It 
is  perfectly  clear  that  whatever  John  understood 
as  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  viewed  from  the  reli- 
gious side,  he  understood  that  it  meant  as  well 
a  mighty  change  in  the  social  order. 

Jesus  accepted  John's  teachings  as  to  the 
kingdom,  and  himself  went  on  to  teach  principles 
so  revolutionizing  in  their  influence  that  Emile 
de  Loyola,  the  Belgian  economist,  saj^s,  "If  they 
had  been  understood  and  applied  conformably 
to  his  (Jesus')  spirit,  the  existing  social  condi- 
tions would  not  have  lasted  a  single  day."  In 
our  own  day  James  Russell  Lowell  said,  "There 
is  enough   (social)  dynamite  in  the  New  Testa- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 


ment,  if  illegitimately  applied,  to  blow  existing 
institutions  to  atoms." 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the  parables 
of  Jesus  show  clearly  that  the  primary  purpose 
of  the  gospel  is  the  salvation  of  the  individual ; 
but  they  show  as  well  that  it  proposes  also  the 
reconstruction  of  society,  so  that  there  may  be 
attained  deliverance  from  enemies  and  from 
them  that  oppress,  and  that  the  time  is  to  be 
expected  when  in  reality  every  one  shall  live 
in  peace  and  prosperity  "under  his  own  vine  and 
fig  tree." 

The  first  text  from  which  Jesus  preached 
after  his  return  to  Nazareth  following  his  bap- 
tism sounded  the  key-note  of  his  purpose,  and 
it  was  largely  social  in  its  meaning  and  appli- 
cation :  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  be- 
cause he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tid- 
ings to  the  poor,  he  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim 
liberty  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight 
to  the  blind;  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bound;  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord."     It  sounds  like  the  proclamation  of  the 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SOCIAL   SYSTEM  9 

Jewish  year  of  Jubilee,  when  alienated  posses- 
sions were  returned  to  the  families  to  whom  they 
had  been  originally  allotted,  and  when  Hebrew 
slaves  were  set  free.  It  is  quite  like  the  inscrip- 
tion on  the  old  Liberty  Bell,  "Proclaim  liberty 
throughout  all  the  land,  and  to  all  the  inhabi- 
tants thereof." 

True,  the  words  read  b}^  Jesus  have  a  dis- 
tinctly religious  meaning;  but  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  throughout  show  that  he  intended  that 
they  should  have  a  social  interpretation  as  well. 

But,  is  there  a  call  to-day  for  Christianity  as 
a  social  system?  Have  not  conditions  so  changed 
since  the  days  when  Jesus  lived  as  to  render  this 
phase  of  Christian  teaching  both  unnecessary 
and  impractical? 

We  are  living  at  an  exceedingly  interesting- 
period  of  the  w^orld's  history.  Kemarkable 
changes,  and  changes  for  the  better,  have  oc- 
curred since  the  days  of  Jesus.  History  reveals 
no  other  period  when  there  was  such  widespread 
intelligence  as  in  this;  no  period  in  which  there 
was  such  remarkable  development  of  the  means 


10  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

of  promoting  intelligence,  or  of  increasing  the 
productiveness  of  human  labor. 

The  same  may  be  said  as  to  the  development 
of  the  science  and  the  art  of  government,  whether 
municipal,  state,  or  national.  And  yet,  to  say 
that  human  societ}^  in  its  most  advanced  stages 
presents  even  a  near  approach  to  ideal  condi- 
tions would  be  to  depart  widely  from  the  truth. 

Widespread  and  increasingly  abject  poverty 
alongside  of  increasingly  immense  fortunes ;  dis- 
turbed relations  between  employer  and  employe; 
the  presence  of  institutions  whose  inevitable  ef- 
fect is  to  debase  and  debauch  men  and  women; 
disturbed  political  conditions,  local,  nation-wide, 
and  world-wide;  the  conception,  Avidely  preva- 
lent, that  war  is  the  legitimate  court  of  appeal 
between  nations,  evidenced  by  immense  standing 
armies,  increasing  military  equipment,  and  the 
present  awful,  unjustifiable,  unprecedentedly  in- 
human, and  destructive  European  war;  these 
conditions  in  professedly  Christian  lands,  aggra- 
vated by  vastly  worse  conditions  in  semi-civil- 
ized pagan  lands,  are  themselves  evidence  suffi- 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SOCIAL   SYSTEM  11 

eient  that  the  race  is  yet  far  removed  from  ideal 
conditions,  shown  to  be  possible  by  the  nature 
and  capabilities  of  men,  and  by  the  revealed 
word  of  God. 

All  this  and  much  more  shows  that  there  is 
need  of  the  promulgation  and  application  of  some 
effective  system  of  social  renovation.  And  since 
Christianity  claims  to  be  a  scheme  of  social  bet- 
terment, as  well  as  a  system  of  religious  teaching 
and  practice,  it  is  proper  and  right  to  investigate 
it,  and  ascertain  whether  the  principles  it  teaches 
are  such  as  to  justify  the  conclusion  that,  if  ap- 
plied, it  will  solve  the  problem  of  social  better- 
ment for  the  race. 


II 

SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  CHRISTIANITY 


II 

SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

What  are  the  social  principles  set  forth  by 
the  Christian  system,  by  the  application  of  which 
it  proposes  to  effect  the  regeneration  and  trans- 
formation of  human  society? 

Since  it  is  conceded  by  all  that  Jesus,  the 
man  of  Nazareth,  was  the  founder  of  the  Chris- 
tian system,  and  himself  its  supremely  authorita- 
tive teacher,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  the  social 
as  well  as  the  religious  teachings  of  the  system 
will  be  stated  by  him,  at  least  as  it  relates  to 
fundamental  principles.  What  are  those  prin- 
ciples as  taught  by  Jesus,  relating  to  social  re- 
generation or  renovation? 

In  seeking  these  principles  regard  must  be 
had  to  two  facts. 

The  first  is,  that  Jesus  was  not  an  abstract 
theorist,  but  was  a  plain  man  of  his  times,  speak- 
ing concretely  as  to  conditions  about  him,  and 
of  social  and  religious  needs,  but  so  speaking  as 

15 


16  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

to  express  clearly  the  fimdameutal  principles 
underlying  his  teaching. 

It  is  with  the  discovery  of  those  fundamental 
principles,  rather  than  with  the  concrete  appli- 
cation of  his  teachings,  that  we  are  concerned. 

The  second  fact  is,  that  his  social  teachings 
are  most  intimately  associated  with  his  religious 
teachings;  so  intimately  related  as  to  show 
clearly  that  it  was  his  conception  that  the  attain- 
ment of  ideal  social  conditions  is  possible  when 
sought  along  with  the  attainment  of  ideal  reli- 
gious conditions.  That  is,  that  while  Christi- 
anity presents  a  social  system,  its  social  teach- 
ings can  be  most  effectively  applied  only  as  its 
religious  teachings  are  applied. 

It  is  of  vital  importance  to  an  understanding 
of  the  social  teachings  of  Jesus,  that  this  last 
truth  be  understood  and  recognized.  For  while 
there  is  abundant  reason  for  saying  that  the  so- 
cial principles  taught  by  Jesus  Christ  far  excel 
those  tauglit  by  any  other,  yet  the  Christian 
social  system  depends  for  its  efficiency  upon  the 
spiritual  vitalization  of  the  social  truth  it  im- 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OP   CHRISTIANITY  17 

parts,  and  upon  the  proper  attitude  toward  God 
of  each  one  Avho  accepts  and  proposes  to  act  upon 
these  social  principles.  That  is,  the  Christian 
system  holds  that  man  is  first  of  all  a  religious 
being,  owing  his  first  obligation  to  God,  and  that 
only  as  he  stands  in  such  relation  to  God  as  to  be 
vitalized  b}^  his  Spirit,  will  he  be  in  condition  to 
appreciate  and  apply  effectively  the  social  truth 
taught  by  the  Christian  system.  And  also,  that 
just  as  man,  though  twofold,  religious  and  so- 
cial, is  unifi^ed,  centered,  and  must  be  vitalized 
in  his  religious  nature,  so  also  the  Christian  sys- 
tem is  twofold — religious  and  social,  unified,  con- 
tered,  and  vitalized  from  the  religious  side. 

This  being  true  of  man  and  of  the  Christian 
system,  it  will  not  seem  strange  that  in  the 
teachings  of  Jesus,  the  two  phases  of  his  teach- 
ing, social  and  religious,  are  so  closely  woven 
together  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  view  them 
separateh^  without  doing  violence  to  each. 

There  are  four  fundamental  social  principles 
announced  in  the  Christian  system,  each  suf- 
ficient in  itself,  if  fully  applied  in  each  Individ- 


18  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

ual  life,  to  transform  and  idealize  the  entire  body 
of  human  society;  each  so  elficient  because  the 
presence  of  any  one  of  them  involves  in  principle 
the  application  of  the  others.  When  all  present 
in  fact  they  form  a  social  equipment  beyond 
which,  so  far  as  fundamentals  are  concerned, 
there  is  nothing  to  be  desired. 

The  first  of  these  principles  or  requirements, 
is  the  complete  moral  integrit}^  of  each  indi- 
vidual. 

Expressing  the  truth  in  the  language  of  Jesus 
it  is,  "Except  a  nmn  be  born  again  he  cannot 
see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

It  may  seem  strange  to  present  as  a  social 
principle,  this  which  has  always  been  regarded 
as  one  of  the  distinctively  religious  teachings  of 
Jesus. 

It  is  religious,  but  it  is  social  as  well.  Jesus 
announced  tlie  necessity  of  the  new  birth  to 
individual  righteousness — which  means  right- 
ness,  integrity — not  simply  as  a  condition  of  ad- 
mission to  heaven,  but  as  the  primar3^  condition 
of  seeing,  entering,  and  interpreting  the  kingdom 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  OF   CHRISTIANITY  19 

or  reign  of  Jesus  Christ  in  human  society.  Chris- 
tianity is  peculiarly  individualistic.  Not  in  the 
sense  of  overlooking  or  ignoring  societj^,  but 
in  the  sense  that  it  approaches  society  from  the 
side  of  the  individual.  It  seeks  the  regeneration 
of  society  by  means  of  the  regeneration  of  the  in- 
dividual. It  recognizes  that  the  primary  need 
is  the  new-born  man,  new-born  to  social  as  well 
as  to  religious  integrity.  Other  systems  of  reli- 
gion held,  and  now  hold,  that  the  great  need  of 
man  is  to  win  favor  with  God.  Jesus  Christ 
teaches  that  man  has  the  favor  of  God,  and  that 
the  great  need  is  to  get  the  individual  man  right, 
I'ight  with  God  and  right  with  fellow-man. 

This  is  the  great  social  need  to-day.  Forms 
of  organic  social  reform  are  proposed.  No  doubt 
they  possess  some  merit.  But  the  fundamental 
wrong  in  society  is  not  to  be  found  in  its  forms 
of  organization,  but  in  wicked,  perverse  men, 
who  will  twist  £inj  form  of  organization  for  the 
attainment  of  personal  ends. 

If  there  are  political  wrongs,  industrial 
wrongs,  ecclesiastical  wrongs,  as  there  are,  it  is 


20  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

because  there  are  bad  men  iu  politics,  in  com- 
merce, in  industry,  in  the  cluircli. 

The  fundamental  principle  in  Christian  soci- 
ology is,  '' Secure  right  individual  lives  as  the 
fundamental  condition  of  improved  social  con- 
ditions." Nor  is  any  argument  needed  to  show 
that  if  there  can  be  attained  the  universal  right- 
ing of  individual  lives,  there  will  come  as  a  nec- 
essary result,  the  righting  of  all  social  condi- 
tions. True,  this  is  highly  ideal,  but  it  is  cor- 
rect in  theory;  and  more;  application  proves  it 
correct  to  whatever  extent  the  principle  is  ap- 
plied. 

The  second  social  principle  announced  in 
the  Christian  system,  is  the  essential  equality  of 
all  members  of  the  human  race. 

True,  Jesus  at  no  place  makes  such  a  decla- 
ration in  so  many  words;  but  this  principle  is 
fundamental  in  all  of  his  teaching.  He  is  indee<l 
tlie  great  commoner. 

It  is  clearly  taught  in  the  first  utterance  of 
the  Lord's  prayer,  "Our  Father" ;  for  by  this  he 
teaclies   the   fatherhood    of   God    as   universal; 


SOCIAL   PUINCIPLES   OF   CHRISTIxVNITY  21 

hence  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man;  hence 
tlie  universal  essential  equalit}^  of  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  race.  It  is  clearly  taught  also  in  the 
fact  that  Jesus  gives  for  all,  one  and  the  same 
set  of  teachings,  both  religious  and  social,  thus 
showing  that  the  relations,  obligations,  and 
duties  of  all  are  the  same.  This  can  be  true  only 
upon  condition  of  the  essential  equality  of  all. 
This  fact  of  essential  equality  is  proved  also  by 
the  fact  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  equally 
applicable  to  all  people  of  all  races. 

By  essential  equality  is  not  meant  that  all 
are  equal  in  abilit}^  or  capability ;  but  that  in  all 
the  essentials  that  belong  to  man  as  man,  there 
is  essential  equality. 

Out  of  this  fact,  or  principle,  comes  another 
closely  related  to  it,  of  first  importance  in  the 
construction  of  an  ideal  social  sj'stem.  That  is, 
that  since  men  are  essentially  equal,  then,  con- 
ditions being  equal,  they  have  the  same  or  equal 
rights. 

But  this  latter  statement  must  be  properly  in- 
terpreted and  understood.     It  is  not  intended 


22  CHKISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

here  to  teach  that  the  inunature  child  or  the 
barbarian  is  prepared  to  exercise  all  the  func- 
tions that  belong  to  the  mature  or  highly  civil- 
ized man,  for  the  simple  reason  that  such  are  not 
capable  of  exercising  those  functions  for  their 
own  welfare  or  for  the  welfare  of  society.  It  is 
not  intended  to  teach  that  vicious  and  criminal 
men  are  entitled  to  the  exercise  of  the  same 
rights  as  citizens  who  are  virtuous  and  law-abid- 
ing men.  But  it  is  meant  that  as  men,  even  these 
are  the  equal  of  any  otlier  men,  and  have  essen- 
tially the  same  rights.  It  is  the  same  truth  that 
is  declared  in  our  immortal  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, "that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  in- 
alienable rights;  that  among  these  are  life,  lib- 
erty, and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

Some  deny  this,  and  cite  in  proof  of  their  po- 
sition the  admitted  difference  in  men,  intellec- 
tually, phj^sically,  in  moral  character,  and  in 
social  standing,  as  proof.  But  it  is  no  proof  of 
error  in  this  idea  of  equality  as  taught  by  Jesus 
Christ  and  as  declared  by  our  forefathers. 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   OF   CHRISTIANITY  23 

It  is  upon  this  fact,  the  essential  equality  of 
all  men,  that  rests,  practically  at  least,  the  truth 
that  justice  demands  the  same  for  all,  under  like 
conditions.  The  same  award  or  sentence  for  all 
under  like  conditions  can  be  righteous  only 
when  all  parties  concerned  are  essentially  equal. 
If  we  could  conceive  of  society  where  in  fact 
there  should  exist,  by  right,  a  difference  in  rank, 
then  we  must  think  it  just  in  such  society  to 
grant  special  favor  to  those  of  higher  rank.  It 
is  upon  the  assumption  of  this  difference  in  rank, 
and  therefore  in  riglit,  that  those  base  their  ar- 
gument who  affirm  and  attempt  to  defend  the 
superior  claims  of  some  over  others.  Here  is 
also  the  basis  of  the  attempted  defence  of  the 
assumed  "divine  rights  of  kings."  There  are  no 
"divine  rights  of  kings,"  except  as  they  and  all 
I>ublic  officials  represent  divinely  authorized 
civil  government. 

Jesus  recognizes  in  men  no  ranks  or  inequal- 
ities in  essentials.  Here,  in  the  common  equality 
of  all  men,  is  the  rightful  basis  for  the  claim  of 
everv  man  to  that  which  is  due  him  as  a  man,- 


24  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

and  of  the  right  to  deny  to  any  man,  whatever 
may  be  his  position,  and  to  an}^  institution, 
whether  it  be  political,  ecclesiastical,  commer- 
cial, industrial,  or  social,  to  deny  to  all  such  the 
right  to  treat  any  one  as  other  than  a  man,  the 
equal  of  every  other  man. 

Here,  in  the  common  equality  of  all  men,  Is 
the  rightful  basis  for  the  denial  of  the  right  of 
any  man,  or  of  any  institution,  to  attempt  to  de- 
fraud any  man,  woman,  or  child,  of  anything 
that  is  justly  his  as  the  equal  of  every  other. 

Here,  too,  is  the  rightful  basis  for  the  denial 
of  the  right  of  men  or  of  institutions,  at  the  cost 
of  the  unrequited  toil  of  others,  to  pile  up  un- 
limited fortunes,  while  multitudes  by  whose  toil 
and  sacrifice  they  have  profited,  are  compelled  to 
endure  the  hardships  that  inadequately  remuner- 
ated toil  and  selfish  greed  impose. 

And  when  Jesus  Christ  throughout  his  teach- 
ing declares  this  fact  of  the  essential  equality  of 
all,  he  not  only  rebukes  all  the  injustice  that 
selfishness  imposes,  but  he  strikes  the  blow  that 
ultimately  must  tell  to  the  defeating  of  all  such 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  OF   CHRISTIANITY  25 

men,  to  the  destroying  of  all  such  institutions, 
and  to  the  creating  of  equal  opportunities  and 
advantages  for  all.  This  end  will  be  realized, 
however,  only  when  the  teaching  and  spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ  becomes  dominant  in  individual  and 
in  social  life. 

When  Jesus  Christ  taught  his  disciples  to 
pray,  "Our  Father,"  he  sounded  the  death  knell 
to  human  slaverj^  and  to  every  institution,  polit- 
ical, commercial,  industrial,  and  ecclesiastical, 
that  by  practice  of  injustice  and  oppression  has 
cursed  and  is  cursing  human  society.  In  this  he 
also  announced  the  fundamental  principle  of  hu- 
man equality,  upon  which  to  erect  institutions 
that  will  secure  to  each  man,  woman,  and  child, 
that  which  is  justly  his,  and  thus  establish  har- 
mony and  peace  universal. 

A  careful  study  of  the  Jewish  prophets  will 
reveal  the  fact  that  they  saw  in  outline  this  same 
fundamental  principle  of  equality ;  but  they  were 
not  able  to  lead  their  people  up  to  the  plane 
where  they  would  apply  the  principle  effectively 
in  the  institutions  of  society.    And  sad  to  say, 


20  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

though  Jesus  announced  this  principle  nineteen 
centuries  ago,  the  prophets  and  teachers  of  the 
Christian  system  have  been  only  a  little  more 
successful  than  were  the  Jewish  prophets  in 
securing  its  application. 

AVhoever  and  whatever  may  he  responsible, 
it  sureh^  is  true  that  even  in  the  most  highly 
Christianized  and  civilized  lands,  there  are 
widely  varying  conditions  of  huumn  life.  Ex- 
tremes of  wealth  and  poverty;  unjustly  unequal 
distribution  of  the  products  of  toil  and  industry; 
vice  and  crime  and  institutions  for  the  promo- 
tion of  both;  political  injustice  and  inequality; 
commercial  greed  and  its  consequent  robbery,  all 
bear  indisputable  evidence  that  the  conviction 
of  essential  human  equality,  and  of  equal  essen- 
tial rights,  as  announced  and  promulgated  by 
Jesus  Christ,  is  not  jet  in  any  respect  nearly 
recognized  as  a  governing  principle  in  individual 
life,  nor  in  the  institution  of  society. 

It  is  not  at  all  remarkable,  therefore,  that, 
with  the  more  widespread  teaching  of  this  fun- 
damental  principle  of  equality,   along  with   a 


SOCIAL   PRINCirLES  OP   CHRISTIANITY  27 

growing  intelligence  and  a  clearer  understand- 
ing of  the  rights  of  the  individual  and  of  society, 
there  is  a  growing  restlessness  and  determina- 
tion to  secure  the  establishment  of  conditions 
under  which  this  fundamental  truth  of  the  equal- 
ity of  all  shall  be  more  clearly  acknowledged; 
acknowledged  by  giving  it  a  controling  sway  in 
politics,  in  commerce,  and  in  the  industries  of 
society. 

This  determination  is  manifesting  itself  in  an 
increasingly  widespread  and  irresistible  effort 
to  democratize  political  institutions ;  to  secure  to 
society  proper  oversight  or  control  of  the  com- 
merce and  the  industries  of  this  and  of  other 
nations;  to  compel  individuals  and  corporations 
to  pay  due  respect  to  the  rights  of  men  and  of 
society. 

All  this  is  increasingly  strong  evidence  of 
the  growing  conviction  of  the  righteousness  of 
this  fundamental  social  principle  first  clearly 
announced  and  made  effective  by  Jesus  Christ; 
it  is  therefore  an  increasingly  strong  tribute  to 
him,  and  an  increasing  acknowledgment  of  the 


28  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

fact  that  Christianity  is  a  system  of  social  re- 
form as  well  as  a  system  of  religious  quickening. 


III. 

SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES,   CONTINUED 


III. 

SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES,  CONTINUED 

The  third  social  principle  anounced  by  Je- 
sus Christ  is  what  may  be  termed  the  funda- 
mental law  of  human  conduct;  "all  things  what- 
soever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do 
ye  also  unto  them  likewise." 

This  is  a  necessary  implication  from  the 
principle  of  brotherhood  and  equality.  It  need 
scarcely  be  said  that  the  failure  of  men  to  act 
toward  each  other  in  harmony  with  this  funda- 
mental and  comprehensive  law,  is  one  of  the 
monumental  producing  causes  of  the  evils  that 
distress  and  disrupt  human  society.  Scarcely 
more  need  it  be  said  that,  if  this  law  were  uni- 
versally observed,  the  evils  of  society  would 
rapidly  and  largely  disappear.  It  is  equally 
true  that,  to  the  extent  that  men  conform  their 
conduct  to  this  law,  to  that  extent  the  bettei*- 
ment  of  society  is  and  will  be  realized. 

31 


32  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 


Several  characteristics  of  this  rule  of  conduct 
need  consideration. 

It  is  a  positive  statement,  and  therefore  con- 
structive in  its  application,  marking  out  a  course 
of  aggi'essive,  helpful  activity.  In  this  respect 
tlie  precept  of  Jesus  differs  from,  and  by  far  ex- 
cels the  negative  precept  of  Confucious,  "What 
you  would  not  wish  done  to  yourself,  that  do 
not  to  others." 

This  precept  or  principle,  as  taught  by  Jesus 
is  universal,  universal  in  two  relations.  It  ap- 
plies to  all  men  in  all  relations,  and  in  all  con- 
ditions; viewing  it  from  the  side  of  social  activ- 
ity, to  men  as  employers  and  as  employes;  to 
men  as  sellers  and  men  as  buyers ;  to  men  skilled 
and  men  unskilled;  to  men  successful  and  men 
unsuccessful;  to  men  of  every  race  and  of  every 
color;  to  men  strong  and  men  weak.  It  is  appli- 
cable to  men  and  women.  It  is  universal  as  to 
those  to  whom  and  by  whom  it  is  to  be  applied. 

It  is  universal  also  in  its  application  to  activ- 
ities; "All  things  whatsoever."  It  embraces  the 
entire  field  of  possible  human  effort.     It  is  not, 


SOCIAL    PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  33 

"All  things  that  you  do  to  or  for  your  fellow- 
man,  do  as  you  would  have  him  do  the  same  for 
you."  It,  of  course,  embraces  all  that.  But  be- 
sides and  far  beyond  all  that,  "All  things  that 
you  would  have  him  do  for  you,  do  that  for  him." 
Hence  it  covers  what  one  can  do,  as  well  as 
what  one  does. 

It  is  evident  tliat,  in  laying  down  this  prin- 
ciple, Jesus  recognized  clearly  the  essential 
equality  of  all  men,  and  that  fact  must  be  seen 
as  a  condition  necessary  to  a  proper  application 
of  this  principle.  The  only  basis  or  ground  of 
right  for  requiring  one  man  to  do  for  another 
what  he  would  have  the  other  do  for  him  is,  that 
he  and  the  other  are  in  every  essential  the  equal 
one  of  the  other.  Each  must  be  the  equal  of  the 
other,  or  one  or  the  other  is  not  a  proper  subject 
of  comparison  in  deciding  what  should  be  done. 

It  is  to  be  observed  also  that,  while  this  prin- 
ciple inculcates  the  virtue  of  unselfishness,  it 
does  not  go  so  far  as  to  require  or  even  encour- 
age self-forgetfulness.  There  is  in  it  a  distinct 
regard  for  individual  or  personal  rights.    Indeed 


34  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

it  announces  consciousness  or  conviction  of  what 
is  due  to  one's  self  as  the  ground  of  judgment  as 
to  what  is  due  to  another;  "All  things  whatso- 
ever ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you." 

Read  only  that  far,  liowever,  it  might  be  con- 
cluded that  selfishness  or  self-interest  should 
form  the  basis  of  action.  Such  might  seem  the 
case,  but  for  the  remainder  of  the  precept,  "even 
so  do  3^ou  to  them  likewise."  The  measure,  not 
of  selfish  desire,  but  of  action  for  fellow-man  is 
to  be  determined  by  what  one  would  choose  for 
himself. 

Therefore,  while  this  law  in  its  application 
turns  upon  regard  for  one's  self,  it  is  such  a 
regard  as  does  not  overlook  the  right  of  others, 
nor  of  society  at  large.  It  prescribes  as  the  rule 
of  the  life  of  the  individual,  in  his  attitude  and 
conduct  toward  his  fellow-man,  that  he  shall  de- 
termine his  attitude  and  measure  his  conduct 
upon  the  twofold  basis  of  the  relation  of  himself 
and  his  fellow,  as  each  the  equal  of  the  other,  and 
as  l)()th  alike  related  to  society  at  large. 


SOCIAL   PIIINCIPLBS,    CONTINUED  35 

The  Christian  system  prescribes  this  as  the 
imiversal  law  of  conduct  between  neighbor  and 
neighbor ;  between  employer  and  employe ;  be- 
tween seller  and  buyer ;  between  ruler  and  ruled, 
except  as  the  ruler  stands  as  the  chosen  repre- 
sentative of  society. 

What  would  be  the  result  of  the  universal 
application  of  this  law  of  conduct?  The  an- 
swer would  of  necessity  be  theoretical,  for  the 
reason  that  there  is  nowhere  in  actual  life  a  full 
illustration  of  such  application, 

A  more  helpful  answer  may  be  had  to  the 
question,  "What  would  be  the  result  if  the 
Golden  Kule  were  practiced  generally?" 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  ideal  results  obtain 
only  under  ideal  conditions,  and  since  the  appli- 
cation of  this  rule  "generally,"  which  means 
partially,  would  not  represent  ideal  conditions, 
the  conclusion  as  to  the  result  must  represent 
tendencies  rather  than  ultimate  ends  and  ac- 
complishments. 

One  of  the  beneficial  results  of  the  enlarging 
application   of  this   fundamental   rule   of   con- 


36  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

duct,  its  application  approaching  toward  what 
might  be  termed  "general,"  would  be  to  bring 
into  clearer  recognition  related  fundamental 
principles.  One  of  the  greatest  advantages  that 
has  come  to  America  and  to  the  world  as  the 
result  of  the  establishing  of  our  free  institu- 
tions, has  been  the  increased  interest  aroused 
in  the  question  of  human  rights;  so  great  and 
widespread  has  been  this  interest  that  to-day  an 
absolute  monarchy  is  almost  an  impossibility  in 
any  land  where  people  possess  even  a  creditable 
measure  of  intelligence. 

As  men  shall  more  generally  determine  their 
lives  and  their  conduct,  not  by  the  limitations 
prescribed  by  legislative  enactment,  but  by  per- 
sonal application  of  this  great  moral  precept, 
this  constructive  principle  of  human  activity,  a 
most  important  and  remarkable  result  will  be 
a  clearer  understanding  of  the  essential  equality 
and  of  the  essential  equal  rights  of  all  people, 
followed  by  a^  quickening  of  the  social  conscience, 
which  will  in  turn  awaken  a  still  greater  interest 
in,  and  effort  toward,  determining  just  what  is 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  37 

involved  in  this  fundamental  fact  of  the  equality 
of  all  men,  with  the  further  reflex  result  of  a 
vastly  more  careful  application  of  this  precept. 
And  no  greater  social  benefit  could  come  to  so- 
ciety as  a  condition  preparatory  to  increasing 
social  betterment. 

One  reason  why  the  Golden  Rule  is  not  more 
generally  and  more  effectively  applied  is  because 
of  a  lack  of  a  clear  apprehension  of  its  meaning 
and  significance.  Thousands  of  men  are  socially 
narrow  and  selfish,  because  they  have  no  ade- 
quate conception  of  the  equality  and  of  the  equal 
rights  of  people  with  whom  they  are  associated 
in  business,  on  the  street,  in  the  church,  and  else- 
where. Men  and  women  have  been  known  to  go 
to  church,  professedly  to  worsliip  God,  and  then 
scowl  and  frown  when  some  one,  their  equal  in 
ever}^  essential  respect  but  beneath  them  in  social 
rank,  has  unwittingly  taken  a  seat  in  their  pew. 
]\ten  in  business,  possessed  of  larger  wealth  tlmn 
others,  have  been  known  to  look  and  act  with 
unconcern  if  not  disdain  upon  patrons  in  busi- 
ness, their  employes,  or  those  less  successful  in 


38  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

business  than  they,  because  they  have  not  re- 
flected upon  the  fact  of  the  common  equality  of 
all  men,  thus  failing  to  apply  this  leveling  and 
uplifting  law  of  conduct.  Yet  all  of  them,  church 
uien,  business  men,  society  women,  will  declare 
that  they  believe  in  the  Golden  Rule,  and  in  the 
equal  rights  of  all.  The  difficulty  with  such  is 
that  they  do  not  think  carefully  nor  clearly. 

But  Avith  an  increasing  application  of  this 
law  of  true  social  conduct  there  will  come  an 
ever-enlarging  understanding  and  application  of 
fundamental  principles  related  to  it,  and  a  higher 
appreciation  of  the  true  worth  of  human  kind. 

A  further  result  of  the  practical  application 
of  the  Golden  Rule  would  be  the  displacement  of 
ruinous  competition  by  a  type  of  co-operation 
that  would  inure  to  the  benefit  of  the  whole  of 
society. 

Some  will  say,  "But  that  would  ruin  trade, 
for  'Competition  is  tlic  life  of  trade.'  "  Some 
think  so,  but  others  quite  as  deserving  of  con- 
sideration think  otherwise.  Frederick  Deunison 
Maurice,  by  Walter  Rauschenbusch  styled  "one 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  39 

of  the  finest  minds  of  England  in  the  Victorian 
Age,"  says,  "Competition  is  put  forth  as  the  law 
of  the  universe;  that  is  a  lie."  Charles  Kingsley 
said,  "Competition  means  death;  co-operation 
means  life."  Rauschenbusch  says,  "Competition 
has  proved  itself  suicidal  to  economic  welfare." 

In  a  sense  it  is  true  that  competition  is  the 
life  of  trade.  But  it  has  also  frequently  entailed 
ruin  upon  men  engaged  in  trade.  The  modern 
effort  to  eliminate  competition  by  means  of  com- 
bination and  monopolization  of  business  is  ample 
evidence  that  competition  unrestrained  is  ruin- 
ous to  business.  The  increasing  determination 
to  exercise  control  over  business  through  State 
and  National  legislation,  with  a  view  to  creating 
conditions  where  opportunities  in  business  shall 
be  equal  for  all,  is  strong  evidence  of  the  increas- 
ing recognition  of  the  evil  of  unrestrained  com* 
petition,  and  of  the  value  of  co-operation  as  a  true 
business  principle. 

Nor  are  the  ruinous  effects  of  competition 
confined  to  the  business  world.  Its  effects  are 
felt  largelv  in  the  church.    Recognizing  that  the 


40  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCI.AL  WEAL 

church  has  a  legitimate  mission  to  society,  it 
must  be  conceded  that  nothing  destroys  its  in- 
fluence and  its  capability  for  good  more  tlian 
local  competition  between  churches  striving  for 
the  supremacy  in  given  communities;  competi- 
tion as  really  selfish  and  devoid  of  the  spirit  that 
should  dominate  the  church  as  is  found  in  the 
commercial  world.  "Competition"  has  no  legiti- 
mate place  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  church.  Of 
like  character  and  influence  is  competition  for 
official  position  so  often  seen  in  local  and  gen- 
eral councils  of  the  church. 

All  this  will  be  abolished  when  the  church 
comes  to  the  place  where  it  recognizes  fully  its 
social  as  well  as  its  religious  obligations;  when 
it  recognizes  in  fact  the  equality  and  the  equal 
rights  of  all  men,  and  actually  applies  the  Golden 
Rule,  the  rule  of  friendly  co-operation  in  church 
life  and  activity. 

Equally  destructive  of  good  is  competition 
in  the  social  world.  From  state  and  diplomatic 
circles,  from  the  palaces  of  kings  and  homes  of 
presidents  down  to  the  smallest  social  club  or 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  41 

fraiternity,  "Who  shall  be  the  greatest?"  has  been 
one  of  the  disturbing  and  distracting  social  ques- 
tions. What  changes  would  be  wrought  if  this 
simple  principle  of  social  equality  were  permit- 
ted to  take  the  place  of  selfish  egotism?  If  men 
and  women  should  inquire,  not,  "How  can  1 
secure  the  first  position  of  honor?''  but  "How 
can  I  best  show  to  others  the  same  respect,  and 
render  to  them  the  same  helpful  service  that  I 
may  justly  ask  for  myself?" 

It  is  the  application  of  this  same  selfish  prin- 
ciple of  competition  in  the  political  realm  that 
renders  political  contests,  municipal,  state,  and 
national,  so  often  a  disgrace  to  all  concerned  in 
them — the  expression  of  selfish  ambition  for  i)ro- 
motion,  or  for  the  spoils  of  partisan  victory. 

The  practical  application  of  the  principles  of 
equality  and  coroperation  expressed  in  the 
Golden  Rule,  properly  interpreted,  would  elim- 
inate all  this  and  bring  to  society  benefits  inesti- 
mable. Equally  beneficial  results  would  follow 
the  introduction  of  the  unselfish,  co-operative 
principle  in  the  business  Avorld. 


42  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

It  will  be  answered  by  some  that  while  the 
moral  results  miglit  be  good,  the  application 
of  such  a  principle  in  business  would  end  busi- 
ness prosperity.  But  it  is  coming  clearly  into 
view  that  right  moral  principles  lie  also  at  the 
basis  of  true  business  prosperity.  If  the  prin- 
ciple of  equality,  and  the  rule  of  co-operation, 
expressed  in  the  Golden  Eule,  are  right  morally, 
they  cannot  be  wrong  commercialh^,  and  their 
practical  application  must  therefore  add  to  real 
commercial  prosperity.  Otherwise  there  is  an 
irrepressible  conflict  between  the  moral  and  the 
commercial  worlds,  a  conception  which  the  prin- 
ciple of  universal  unity  at  once  contradicts. 
Either  the  principles  of  human  equality  and  co- 
operation are  applicable  with  good  results  in  the 
business  world;  or,  these  ])rinciples  are  in  them- 
selves wrong  morally;  or,  business  prosperity  is 
itself  wrong  morally ;  or,  there  is  an  irrepressible 
conflict  between  the  moral  and  the  commercial 
worlds.  To  say  that  the  principles  set  forth  in 
the  Golden  Rule  are  right  morally,  and  then  say 
that   their   application  in   business   would   end 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  43 

business  prosperity,  is  to  say  that  business  pros- 
perity depends  upon  the  practice  of  principles 
that  are  morally  wrong,  a  conclusion  wrong  in 
principle  and  in  practice. 

The  fact  is  that  very  much  of  the  evil  that 
individuals  and  society  suffer  in  the  business 
world,  whether  commercial  or  industrial,  is  the 
result  of  the  violation  of  the  fundamental  moral 
and  social  principles  of  equality  and  of  equal 
rights,  such  violation  being  upon  the  part  of 
either  buyer  or  seller,  employer  or  employe. 

Altogether  too  largely  the  dominant  prin- 
ciple in  the  commercial  and  in  the  industrial 
world,  from  whichever  side  it  is  viewed,  is  the 
selfish  principle  of  personal  greed.  The  result 
is  a  state  of  constant  strife  and  unrest,  entailing 
almost  immeasurable  loss  upon  both  employers 
and  employes,  as  expressed  in  the  results  of 
strikes,  lockouts,  boycotts,  and  the  consequent 
depression  of  business  and  trade. 

There  is  no  reasonable  ground  for  saying  that 
either  side  of  this  unrest  and  struggle  expresses 
either  the  morally  right  or  the  commercially  wise 


44  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

ill  the  full  sense.  The  riciht  and  the  wise  lies 
between  them,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  determine, 
theoretically,  where.  It  lies  at  the  point  where, 
by  the  practical  application  of  the  Golden  Rnle, 
the  law  of  mutnal  co-operation,  employer  and 
employe,  each  with  proper  regard  for  the  other, 
will  not  only  concede  the  rights  of  the  other,  but 
will  work  mutually  for  the  welfare  and  well- 
being  of  the  other.  The  same  principle  applied 
in  the  commercial  world  generally  would  result 
in  the  mutual  well-being  of  all,  whether  buyers 
or  sellers. 

Would  the  application  of  this  principle  oper- 
ate to  prevent  the  accumulation  of  vast  for- 
tunes and  the  abatement  of  poverty,  by  effecting 
the  more  equitable  distribution  of  wealth  among 
all?  So  far  as  the  accumulation  of  fortunes  is 
the  result  of  tlie  application  of  the  principle  of 
selfish  greed  and  the  disregard  of  the  rights  of 
fellow-man,  it  will  so  operate,  and  ouglit  to.  80 
far  as  the  accumulation  of  fortunes  is  the  result 
of  unselfish  but  well-directed  energy  to  the  de- 
velopment and  distribution  of  the  resources  of 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  45 

nature,  it  will  uot  so  operate,  and  it  ought  not  to 
do  so.  So  far  as  poverty  is  the  result  of  selfish 
indulgence,  indolence,  and  disregard  of  the 
rights  of  others,  it  will  not  operate  to  prevent 
it,  and  it  ought  not  to  do  so.  So  far  as  poverty 
is  the  result  of  selfish  and  unjust  advantage 
taken  hj  others,  it  will  operate  to  prevent  it,  and 
it  ought  to. 

And  so  the  principle  may  be  applied  in  all 
relations,  leading  to  the  conclusion  that  the  re- 
sult of  the  general  application  of  this  funda- 
mental and  comprehensive  law  of  conduct  will 
assist  greatly  to  the  amelioration  and  correction 
of  whatever  ills  are  the  result  of  the  application 
and  practice  of  selfish  principles,  whether  in  the 
domestic  circle,  the  social  circle,  in  business,  or 
in  politics;  hence  it  is  unquestionably  one  of 
the  most  beneficent  social  precepts  ever  given  to 
the  race. 

The  fourth  and  vitalizing  social  principle  in 
the  Christian  system  is  that  enunciated  in  what 
is  termed  the  second  great  commandment,  "Thou 


40  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself";  that  is,  the 
principle  of  love  for  man  as  man. 

Tliis  is  named  tlie  vitalizing  social  principle, 
for  the  reason  that  it  is  the  active  personal  factor 
that  shapes  the  disposition  and  conduct  of  men 
into  harmony  with  the  fundamental  principle  of 
essential  equality.  In  love  is  found  the  motive 
force  that  impels  to  friendly,  helpful  action, 
without  waiting  to  deliberate  upon  just  what 
exact  justice  might  require;  it  goes  much  further 
and  prompts  to  unselfish  kindness  to  another, 
where  self-interest  would  prompt  an  act  center- 
ing in  self;  it  promotes  the  tjite  of  activity  that 
can  result  only  in  the  improvement  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  of  societj^  at  large. 

It  is  of  vital  importance  that  there  be  a 
proper  conception  of  what  love  is  as  a  social 
principle  in  the  Christian  system.  Men  are  dis- 
posed to  think  of  love  only  from  the  sentimental 
or  emotional  side.  But  it  is  conceived  rightly, 
as  a  vital  social  principle  when  it  is  thought  of 
as  the  "steadfast  energy  of  the  will,"  bent  on  the 
promotion  of  true  fellowship  and  such  social  con- 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  47 

ditions  as  are  the  necessary  product  of  true  fel- 
lowship. It  was  this  type  of  love  of  which  Jesus 
spoke. 

Jesus  saw  in  true  fellowship  the  essential 
condition  of  true  social  welfare.  Hence  nothing 
must  be  allowed  to  disrupt  fellowship;  hence 
if  one  offends  jon,  you  must  forgive  him  until 
"seventy  times  seven."  This  requirement  to  for- 
give has  been  viewed  as  purely  a  religious  one; 
it  is  that,  but  it  is  more.  It  will  be  understood 
fully  only  when  it  is  seen  as  an  essential  con- 
dition of  maintaining  uninterrupted  fellowship 
as  a  primary  factor  in  the  highest  social  welfare, 
as  love  practically  exemplified. 

Jesus  says  also,  "Love  your  enemies."  At  once 
this  is  thought  of  as  a  religious  requirement, 
which  it  is.  But  it  is  as  well  a  necessary  condi- 
tion of  promoting  and  maintaining  true  social 
fellowship.  Just  what  it  is  to  love  one's  enemies, 
is  explained  by  that  other  expression  of  Jesus, 
which  is  purely  social,  "If  thine  enemy  hunger, 
feed  him ;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  drink.    For  in  so 


48  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

doing  thou  shalt  licap  coals  of  fire  on  his  head," 
and  thus  thaw  out  his  enmity. 

That  is,  love  for  fellow-man  is  such  an  atti- 
tude of  affection  and  will  as  is  expressed  in  a 
fixed  determination  not  to  allow  fellowship  to  be 
broken  up,  no  matter  what  occurs.  The  principle 
is  illustrated  from  another  side  by  the  parable  of 
the  Good  Samaritan.  There,  love  was  expressed 
not  in  overflowing  emotion,  but  in  actually  doing 
what  was  needed.  That  is,  love,  regard  for  fel- 
low-man, no  matter  what  his  race,  no  matter 
what  his  position  or  condition;  such  regard  for 
fellow-man  as  will  result  in  fixed  determination 
to  extend  help  whenever  and  wherever  help  is 
needed; — this  is  the  vitalizing  principle  set 
forth  in  the  social  teaching  of  Christianity, 
viewed  from  the  human  side. 

This  type  of  love  expresses  itself  also  in  will- 
ing, friendly  association  witli  fellow-men  on  the 
basis,  not  of  clique,  or  clan,  or  club,  but  on  the 
basis  of  the  common  equality  and  common  worth 
of  all.  Jesus  was  himself  distinctively  a  society' 
man ;  not  a  society  man  in  the  sense  in  which  the 


SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  49 

term  is  ordinarily  used,  but  in  the  true  and 
worthy  sense  of  the  term;  a  man  that  sought 
and  loved  the  fellowship  of  fellow-men.  He 
mingled  with  society  whenever  opportunity  pre- 
sented; at  weddings,  in  the  homes  of  the  rich, 
in  the  homes  of  the  poor,  at  the  table  of  the  os- 
tracized publican,  everywhere,  till  he  was  called 
a  wine  bibber,  a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners ; 
but  everywhere  he  met  men  on  the  plane  of  com- 
mon equality.  He  craved  friendship,  and  this 
led  him  to  seek  fellowship ;  he  was  a  lover  of  men 
as  men,  and  hence  he  was  equally  at  home  with 
men  of  all  classes,  because  they  were  men.  His 
heart  went  out  in  deep  sympathy  for  the  poor, 
who  for  any  reason  were  not  in  the  enjoyment 
of  the  blessings  that  God  has  provided  for  all. 
It  was  this  intense  sympathy  for  the  poor  that 
led  him  to  say,  "When  you  entertain,  invite  the 
poor,  the  crippled,  the  lame,  the  blind,"  a  sug- 
gestion that  has  been  taken  seriously  by  but  very 
few. 

The  heart  of  Jesus  went  out  in  pity  for  the 
rich,  who,  surrounded  with  the  good  things  of 


50  CHUISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

earth,  looked  Tiitli  indifference,  if  not  with  con- 
tempt upon  those  who  were  not  so  highly  fa- 
vored, knowing  that  their  situation,  viewed  from 
his  standpoint,  was  fully  as  sad  as  that  of  the 
poor. 

This,  love  for  man  as  man,  tliis  is  the  vitaliz- 
ing principle  of  the  entire  social  economy  pre- 
sented by  Jesus  Christ.  And  is  it  not  easily  seen 
that  to-day  as  then,  the  great  social  need,  the 
one  great  need  in  order  to  the  better  adjustment 
of  social  relations  and  conditions,  from  whatever 
point  the  subject  is  viewed,  is  the  actual  pres- 
ence of  this  same  vitalizing  principle  of  love  for 
man  as  man,  love  tliat  expresses  itself  in  the 
steadfast  will  to  promote  true  fellowship,  and 
the  conditions  that  true  fellowship  will  produce. 

This  condition  prevailing,  the  solution  of  the 
problems  that  so  sorely  vex  society  will  not  long 
wait  solution.  For  to-day  our  social  problems, 
whether  commercial,  industrial,  political,  or 
whatsoever  they  may  be,  are  what  they  are  be- 
cause of  tlie  absence  of  proi)er  regard  for  man 
as  man.     Viewed  from  another  side,   they  are 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES,    CONTINUED  51 

what  they  are  because  of  the  constant  clash  of 
selfish  interests,  each  seeking  the  defeat  of  the 
other  with  a  view  to  the  attainment  of  selfish 
ends. 

Selfishness  is  the  bane  of  society.  That  it  is 
that  impels  to  brutal  practices  in  modern  com- 
mercialism; that  fosters  great  lines  of  business 
that  fatten  on  the  ruin  of  character  and  of  the 
home;  that  impels  employers  to  grind  employes, 
and  employes  to  seek  to  wreck  and  ruin  em- 
ployers. 

And  while  improved  legislation  is  needed,  and 
of  vital  importance,  yet  never  will  these  condi- 
tions be  essentially  changed  till  love  for  man  as 
man  takes  the  place  of  selfish  greed  as  the  con- 
troling  principle  in  social  conduct. 

Only  as  men  become  possessed  of  the  spirit  of 
Christ  will  there  be  the  recognition  of  the  equal 
rights  of  all  men,  and  only  then  will  this  love 
for  man  as  man  become  vital  in  society.  He  is 
the  Light ;  he  is  the  Life :  the  light  of  this  world ; 
the  life  of  this  world.  And  if  this  world  is  to  be 
made  better,  then  he  must  be  given  his  rightful 


52  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

place  in  the  lives  of  men,  and  then  will  there  be 
the  life,  the  love  abundant;  then  will  there  be 
"peace  on  earth;  goodwill  toward  men." 


IV. 
CAUSES  OF  POVERTY 


IV. 

CAUSES   OF    POVERTY 

That  the  supplies  of  nature  will  continue  to 
be  sufficient  to  support  increasing  population 
is  now  generally  accepted.  In  our  own  country 
we  have  thus  far  only  begun  to  test  our  natural 
resources.  And  yet,  two  things  very  significant 
appear. 

The  first  is  that  in  this  country,  so  youthful 
and  so  bountiful,  there  is  already  widespread 
and  increasing  poverty.  There  are  said  to  be 
six  millions  of  our  people  in  a  state  of  poverty, 
"living  in  dread  of  hunger,  working  sore  and 
gaining  nothing,"  which  William  Dean  Ho  wells 
pronounces  "the  essence  of  poverty."  Besides 
there  are  said  to  be  four  millions  of  paupers, 
dependent  upon  the  public  for  their  support. 
Besides  these  there  are  many  millions,  who, 
though  better  situated,  are  by  no  means  in  a 
comfortable,  much  less  an  independent  condition. 

55 


56  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

The  second  fact  is  that  the  number  of  poor 
in  proportion  to  our  population  has  been  rapidly 
increasing  during  the  last  sixty  years — the  period 
in  which  we  have  made  the  most  rapid  progress 
in  the  accumulation  of  wealth. 

What  causes  are  operating  in  American  so- 
ciety to  produce  such  conditions? 

This  is  an  important  question  to  every  one 
interested  in  social  betterment.  It  is  especially 
important  because  its  correct  answer  is  neces- 
sary to  effective  remedial  efforts.  There  is  little 
hope  of  curing  a  disease  until  there  has  been  a 
reasonably  correct  diagnosis. 

If  these  causes  are  unavoidable,  then  we  have 
nothing  hopeful  to  look  forward  to  in  this  rela- 
tion. If  they  are  voidable,  or  if  any  consider- 
able part  of  them  is  voidable,  then  it  is  the  duty 
of  all  who  desire  social  amelioration,  and  espe- 
cially the  duty  of  the  Christian  church,  to  try  to 
abate  as  far  as  possible  these  causes  of  distress. 

One  thing  must  be  said  in  a  negative  way. 
That  is,  that  the  presence  of  poverty  in  our  cou*n- 
try  cannot  be  attributed  to  a  lack  of  natural  re- 


CAUSES  OF  POVERTY  57 

sources.  And  yet  even  here  care  must  be  exer- 
cised. 

Natural  resources  are  actual  resources  only 
when  they  are  developed.  In  many  respects  the 
natural  resources  of  our  country  were  as  great 
when  it  was  occupied  by  the  American  Indian 
as  they  were  after  it  was  occupied  by  the  white 
man.  And  yet  the  Indians  lived  in  almost  ex- 
treme poverty.  These  resources  Avere  quite  as 
great  when  the  country  was  occupied  by  the  early 
white  settlers  as  they  are  now.  Yet  very  many 
of  them  lived  in  poverty  in  the  very  midst  of 
these  resources.  Eesources  must  be  developed 
before  they  have  value.  Hence  lack  of  knowl- 
edge of  resources,  or  of  how  to  develop  them,  or 
lack  of  occasion  or  disposition  to  develop  them, 
may  be  occasion  of  poverty. 

Closely  related  to  these  may  stand  the  in- 
crease of  our  population  from  foreign  countries, 
resulting  in  filling  up  our  country  more  rapidly 
than  its  resources  are  discovered  and  developed, 
this  resulting  frequently  in  lack  of  employment, 
and  consequent  poverty. 


58  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

There  are  also  certain  conditions  or  causes 
over  Avhich,  so  far  as  present  knowledge  and  abil- 
ities extend,  there  is  no  control.  Among  these 
are  unpreventable  calamities  of  nature,  wholly 
unavoidable  disease  and  accident.  It  is  encour- 
aging that  through  scientific  investigation  and 
invention  these  causes  are  being  rapidly  reduced. 

But  more  particularly,  Avhat  are  the  indi- 
vidual and  social  causes  of  poverty? 

Quite  a  number  of  what  may  be  termed  im- 
mediate or  direct  causes  may  be  classed  under 
the  general  head  of  disability  or  inability  to  do 
that  which  is  necessary  to  produce  what  is 
needed  to  supply  the  necessities  of  life. 

A  normal  condition  of  human  life,  viewed 
from  this  material  side,  would  be  a  condition  in 
which  each  person  of  mature  years,  at  least  each 
head  of  a  family,  should  be  capable  of  producing 
at  least  enough  to  provide  for  the  needs  of  him- 
self and  those  dependent  upon  him,  plus  enough 
to  provide  such  necessities  in  case  of  ordinary 
sickness,  and,  after  a  reasonable  period  of  labor 


CAUSES  OF  POVEKTY  59 

is  completed.  Such  a  man,  capable  of  so  pro- 
viding, might  be  termed  a  normal  man. 

But  it  is  clear  that  some  men  are  not  normal 
according  to  tliis  standard.  There  are  many 
who,  because  of  lack  of  physical  or  intellectual 
ability,  are  not  able  to  accomplish  this  task  of 
adequate  provision. 

This  disability  may  or  may  not  be  caused  by 
the  individual  himself.  He  may  have  been  born 
physicall}^  or  intellectually  defective.  In  such 
case,  so  far  as  the  individual  is  concerned,  his 
condition  is  an  unavoidable  cause  of  poverty. 
His  disabilit^^  may  be  because  of  lack  of  adequate 
preparation  for  an  average  life  task.  In  that 
case,  the  responsibility  may  be  with  himself,  with 
his  parents,  or  with  society  because  of  not  having 
provided  adequate  facilities  for  his  training. 
The  disability  may  be  because  of  misconduct 
upon  his  own  part.  He  may  have  induced  it 
througli  drink  or  other  debilitating  habits  or 
practices.  In  that  case  he  is  the  cause  of  his 
own  poverty. 


60  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

There  is  a  second  general  class  of  causes  of 
poverty  of  a  personal  or  individual  character. 
These  may  be  put  under  the  general  term,  indif- 
ference. There  is  with  many  a  lack  of  disposition 
to  do  the  work  necessary  to  producing  what  is 
needed,  or  a  lack  of  disposition  to  concerve  what 
has  been  produced. 

It  is  not  going  wide  of  the  truth  to  say  that 
there  are  many  men  too  indolent,  too  lazy,  to  do 
the  work  necessary  to  support  either  themselves 
or  those  dependent  upon  them ;  men  who,  as  it  is 
sometimes  said,  are  always  hunting  for  work, 
but  seemingly  always  hopeful  that  thej^  will  not 
find  it.  Or  if  they  find  it,  will  work  barely  long 
enough  to  get  money  sufficient  for  a  meal  or  a 
night's  lodging,  or  a  drink  of  liquor.  Prom 
these  men  the  armj^  of  tramps  is  recruited. 

Under  this  same  head  of  indifference  to  hon- 
est toil  are  to  be  classed  men  of  criminal  tenden- 
cies, who,  rather  than  work  will  commit  a  crime, 
indifferent  to  sentence  of  court,  if  they  are  not 
even  glad  thus  to  get  house  and  lodging  at  the 
expense  of  the  public. 


CAUSES  OF  POVERTY  61 

Under  this  same  head  of  indifference  is  to  be 
classed  wastefulness;  wastefulness  either  in  not 
caring  properly  for  the  products  of  toil  in  the 
home,  or  in  extravagant  use  of  those  products. 
The  old  adage  is  true,  "Wilful  waste  makes  woe- 
ful want."  Also,  "A  woman  can  throw  more  out 
of  the  house  with  a  teaspoon  than  a  man  can 
throw  in  with  a  scoop-shovel." 

Many  men  waste  for  useless  tobacco  and  for 
harmful  liquor  enough  to  provide  many  of  the 
necessities  of  the  home,  and  keep  the  wolf  of 
poverty  from  the  door.  A  large  share  of  this 
waste  is  by  men  wlio  receive  small  wages. 

If  we  couple  with  these  things  needless 
extravagance  in  dress,  even  upon  the  part  of 
many  poor  people,  both  men  and  women,  and  ex- 
travagance in  furnishing  the  home  by  the  way 
of  the  high-priced  installment  house  and  the 
pawn  shop,  it  is  easy  to  see  why  to  many  a 
home,  poverty  comes  "as  a  robber,  and  want  as 
an  armed  man." 

It  is  argued  that  the  poor  man  has  as  much 
right  to  some  of  the  luxuries  of  life  as  has  the 


02  CHRISTL\NITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

rich  man.  As  a  matter  of  abstract  right,  he  has, 
B^^i  we  are  concerned  here,  not  with  the  ques- 
tions of  abstract  riglit,  l>nt  with  the  very  praxr- 
tical  question  of  the  causes  of  poverty.  x\nd  ex- 
travagance and  useless  expenditure  is  one  of 
theuL  Being  charitable  as  one  may  in  liis  esti- 
mate of  men,  Ave  are  compelled  to  admit  that  a 
large  measure  of  the  growing  poverty  of  our 
countrj'  is  the  result  of  indifference  upon  the 
part  of  individuals  to  tlie  conditions  necessary 
to  avoid  it ;  and  they  only  can  abate  these  causes. 
Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine,  Secretary  of  the 
Charity  Organization  of  Ncav  York  City,  says 
that  he  discovered,  as  tlie  result  of  scientific  in- 
vestigation in  five  thousand  dependent  families 
in  New  York  City,  that  in  sixteen  and  sixteen- 
hundredths  per  cent,  of  the  families,  the  poverty 
was  traceable  to  intemperance;  in  eleven  and 
seven-tenths  per  cent,  to  la^iiness  and  shiftless- 
ness;  in  five  and  twelve-liundredths  per  cent., 
to  licentiousness;  in  three  and  eighty-eiglit  luin- 
dredths  per  cent,  to  untruthfulness  and  unre- 
liability;    in     thirty-seven    and     thirty-six-hun- 


CAUSES  OP  POVERTY  63 

dredths  per  cent.,  to  causes  voidable  only  by  the 
in  dividual. 

Doctor  Devine  and  otliers  raise  the  question 
whether  these  classes  are  poor  because  of  their 
personal  indifference,  or  whether  they  are  indif- 
ferent, with  resultant  poverty,  because  of  social 
economic  conditions.  Socialists  claim  the  latter. 
And  hence  tliey  trace  all  the  resultant  poverty 
back  to  society  as  its  ultimate  cause.  There  may 
be  an  element  of  truth  in  their  position;  but  to 
account  in  this  manner  wholly  for  these  condi- 
tions and  the  resultant  evils,  is  to  relieve  the  in- 
dividual of  all  responsibility,  and  thus  exempt 
him  from  all  obligation,  and  thereby  dig  the  grave 
of  society,  of  Avhich  the  individual  is  the  ulti- 
mate unit.  If  there  is  no  obligation  upon  the 
individual,  whence  can  come  obligation  to  so- 
ciety? There  is  great  need  of  improved  social 
conditions,  as  a  means  of  abating  poverty.  But 
God  save  us  from  the  day  when,  by  relieving  the 
individual  of  responsibility,  we  encourage  per- 
sonal indifference  to  the  conditions  that  make 
for  material  as  well  as  higher  welfare. 


64  CTIKISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

Social  economic  conditions  may  be  such  as 
to  deprive  many  men  of  what  is  needed  to  render 
home  comfortable.  But  each  man  is  himself  re- 
sponsible if,  under  these  conditions,  he  by  indo- 
lence, wastefulness,  and  useless  expenditure,  de 
prives  the  home  of  what  it  might  have.  His 
wife,  too,  is  responsible  if,  under  these  condi- 
tions, she  is  wasteful  of  or  extravagant  Avith 
what  they  do  have.  It  is  the  fundamental  duty 
of  every  one,  rich  or  poor,  to  use  wisely  what 
he  does  possess. 

Light  will  be  thrown  upon  this  point  by  the 
following  from  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  under 
the  topic,  "Thrift  Among  the  Rich,"  by  Isaac  F. 
Marcosson. 

"Most  persons  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that 
the  very  rich  are  apt  to  Avatch  tlieir  daily  ex- 
penses more  sharply  than  does  tlie  man  in  more, 
moderate  circumstances. 

"To  show  you  the  extent  to  which  this  is  car- 
ried, let  me  cite  a  system  created  by  one  of  the 
great  captains  of  capital,  and  later  developed 
and  adapted  to  individual  needs  by  more  tlian 


CAUSES  OF  POVERTY  65 

one  important  personage  in  Wall  Street.  It 
gives  yon  a  new  and  intimate  glimpse  into  the 
economics  of  large  personal  expense,  and  shows 
that  thrift  does  not  vanish  with  the  coming  of 
millions. 

"As  a  most  significant  performance  the  be- 
ginning of  this  system  was  interesting.  A  cer- 
tain rich  man  found  leakage  in  his  expenses.  It 
was  difficult  to  find  specific  causes  for  seeming 
extra,vagance.  He  lost  much  valuable  time  fuss- 
ing over  invoices  and  bills.  He  was  an  organ- 
izer; so  he  decided  to  apply  to  personal  expendi- 
ture the  genius  of  detail  he  had  injected  into 
great  industrial  enterprises. 

"He  laid  out  a  system  of  accounting  that 
would  tell  him  at  a  glance  just  what  he  was 
spending  for,  ranging  from  the  cream  on  his 
breakfast  table  to  the  tips  he  gave  when  travel- 
ing. The  original  plan  was  put  on  a  huge  sheet 
that  looked  like  the  fin£incial  statement  of  a  rail- 
road. Later  its  salient  features  were  reduced 
to  more  compact  form  by  one  of  his  friends,  who 
changed  the  sheet  to  a  folder  about  the  size  of  a 


66  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

railroad  timetable.  For  the  purpose  of  illnstra- 
tion,  this  folder  will  be  described  here. 

"The  pages  of  the  folder  are  divided  into  nar- 
row, ruled  columns.  These  columns  are  grouped 
into  sections  and  each  section  is  devoted  to  some 
branch  of  expense.  The  man  has  a  town  house, 
a  farm,  and  a  garage.  Therefore  the  main  head- 
ings under  which  expenses  are  itemized  are: 
House  Expense,  Table  Expense,  Stable,  Auto- 
mobile, Farm,  Hotel  (for  he  travels  a  great 
deal),  and  Sundries. 

"As  soon  as  a  bill  comes  in  the  man  stamps 
it  with  a  rubber  stamp;  his  clerk  makes  out  a 
voucher  for  it,  and  the  check,  pinned  to  this 
voucher,  comes  back  for  signature.  Checks  are 
signed  only  twice  a  month,  save  for  some  pres??- 
ing  emergency. 

"Any  one  of  the  sections  in  this  system  will 
show  the  minute  detail  with  which  rich  men 
watch  their  affairs.  Take  the  part  devoted  to 
house  expense.  Here  you  find  columns  for  house- 
maids and  housemen,  laundry,  renewals  and  sup- 
plies, light  and  heat,  telephone.     In  the  section 


CAUSES  OF  POVERTY  67 

devoted  to  table  expense  you  find  columns  for 
wages — cook  and  waitress,  groceries  and  fruit, 
milk  and  cream,  meat  and  fish,  linen,  china,  and 
kitchen  renewals. 

''The  sundry  section  is  i^erhaps  the  most 
striking  of  all,  for  it  is  a  marvel  of  detail.  Ab- 
solutely nothing  that  can  call  for  the  expendi- 
ture of  money  escapes  record.  Things  to  which 
the  average  man,  with  no  system  of  personal 
accounting,  pays  no  attention,  find  minute  reck- 
oning here.  Yet  the  average  man's  indifference 
to  this  very  thing  is  one  reason  why  he  never 
escapes  from  the  bondage  of  the  pay  envelope." 

If  rich  men  find  it  important  to  guard  thus 
carefull}^  their  expenditures,  how  much  more  is 
extreme  care  necessary  upon  the  part  of  men  and 
women  of  limited  means. 

But,  conceding  all  that  may  justly  be  said  of 
individual  responsibilty  for  poverty,  what  is  to 
be  said  of  social  responsibility? 

The  fact  that  man  is  a  social  being  renders 
necessary  some  form  of  social  or  political  organ- 
ization.   But  social  organization  means  at  least 


68  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

some  measure  of  social  obligation.  Just  what  is 
the  extent  of  that  oblig-ation  has  been  one  of  the 
social  questions  of  the  ages.  But  it  is  a  question 
that  must  have  some  answer  before  any  progress 
can  be  made  toward  answering  the  next  ques- 
tion, How  shall  that  obligation  be  met?  Jesus 
Clirist,  the  author  of  the  Christian  system, 
taught  that  that  obligation  will  be  met  only  when 
society  is  organized  and  operated  upon  the  theory 
tliat  every  man  is  brother  to  every  other  man; 
that  is,  when  society  is  organized  and  operated 
upon  the  theory  that  the  essential  rights  of  any 
man  are  the  same  as  the  essential  rights  of  every 
other  man. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  this  type  of 
social  organization  does  not  exist,  or  is  not  prac- 
tically applied  to-day.  But  if  we  accept  this 
theory,  or  anything  approaching  it,  as  the  true 
theory,  then  we  must  recognize  it  as  obligatory 
upon  society  to  create  such  conditions  as  shall, 
as  nearly  as  possible,  give  to  each  one  who  is  to 
become  a  mend^er  of  society,  adequate  prepara- 
tion for  at  least  an  average  life  task.     This  em- 


CAUSES  OF  POVERTY  69 

braces  very  much.  It  means  that  under  anything 
like  reasonable  conception  of  its  obligations,  so- 
ciety is  responsible  for  the  creation  of  snch  con- 
ditions as  will,  as  far  as  possible,  insure  that 
every  member  of  society  shall  be  well  born,  well 
reared,  and  adequately  qualified  for  an  average 
life  task. 

Therefore,  to  the  extent  to  which  society  has 
not  sought,  and  is  not  seeking  to  create  such 
conditions,  to  that  extent  society  is  and  will  be 
responsible  for  the  poverty  and  distress  that  re- 
sult from  these  neglects. 

But  further  than  this,  it  must  appear  clear  to 
every  one  that,  under  any  reasonable  conception 
of  its  obligation,  society  is  responsible  for  the 
creation,  as  nearly  as  possible,  of  such  condi- 
tions as  will  guarantee  to  each  member  of  so- 
ciety adequate  and  fair  opportunity  for  the  per- 
formance of  the  average  life  task.  Some  will 
hold  that  it  should  be  equal  opportunity.  But 
equal  opportunity  can  be  provided  only  to  those 
who  are  of  equal  capability  and  disposition. 
Every  man  is  himself  a  part,  indeed  a  large  part, 


70  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

of  his  own  opportunity.  Hence  the  best  that  can 
be  asked,  and  the  best  that  can  be  done  by  so- 
ciety, is  to  create  conditions  in  which  to  each 
member  of  society  there  shall  be  guaranteed 
adequate  and  fair  opportunity.  And  to  the  ex- 
tent that  society  has  not  and  is  not  doing  this, 
to  that  extent  society  has  been  and  is  responsible 
for  existent  poverty. 

How  is  it  with  us  as  a  nation  in  these  re- 
spects? 

There  is  no  question  that  we  are  increasing 
in  wealth  very  rapidly.  But  in  doing  this  we 
are  employing  eight  millions  of  our  women,  and 
one  million  seven  hundred  thousand  of  our  chil- 
dren in  factories  and  stores,  all  of  whom  belong 
to  the  poorer  classes.  Unquestionably  this 
means  that  many  of  our  future  citizens  will  be 
neither  well  born,  well  reared,  nor  well  trained; 
thus  we  are  enhancing  poverty,  and  by  no  means 
abating  it.  These  are  conditions  also  that  can 
be  abated  or  ameliorated  only  by  the  action  c»f 
society.  In  large  parts  of  our  country,  too,  we 
are  not  only  tolerating  but   legalizing  institu- 


CAUSES  OF  POVERTY  71 

tions  that  promote  intemperance  and  waste.  Tlie 
abolition  of  these  conditions  is  a  task  that  can 
be  performed  only  by  society.  And  so  long  as 
society  does  not  do  this,  so  long  it  is  responsible, 
at  least  in  part,  for  the  resultant  poverty. 

But  there  is  still  another  phase  of  this  ques- 
tion of  social  responsibility. 

At  the  same  time  that  our  wealth  is  increas- 
ing, our  poverty  is  also  increasing.  And,  while 
the  increasing  wealth  is  with  accelerating  rapid- 
ity gravitating  into  the  hands  of  a  few,  the  in- 
creasing poverty  is  becoming  both  more  intense 
and  more  widespread.  It  is  also  true  that  the 
increase  of  poverty  is  chiefly  among  those  kaown 
as  the  laboring  classes. 

Now,  the  increase  of  the  volume  of  wealtli  is 
the  result  chiefly  of  the  application  of  industry. 
Exchange  effects  transfer  of  wealth,  but  no  in- 
crease. Articles  have  the  same  value  before  as 
after  exchange ;  hence  there  is  in  this  process  no 
increase  of  values.  Exchange  may  indirectly 
promote  wealth  by  facilitating  the  application 
of  industry,   but   it   does   not   of  itself   create 


72  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

wealth.  Planning,  effective  organization,  and 
superintendence  promote  effectiveness  in  the  ap- 
plication of  labor,  and  thus  increase  its  product. 
But  the  increase  of  value  is  the  result  of  industry 
applied  to  natural  resources.  Therefore  the  con- 
clusion must  be  that  the  vast  increase  of  our 
wealth  as  a  nation  is  chieflv  the  result  of  the 
toil  of  men,  women,  and  children  engaged  in  our 
industries,  our  laboring  population,  this  applica- 
tion being  rendered  possible  and  effective  by  men 
engaged  in  promoting  these  industries.  But  at 
the  same  time  that  this  applied  industry  is  add- 
ing to  the  volume  of  our  wealth,  both  our  poverty 
and  the  increase  of  our  poverty  prevail  increas- 
ingly among  those  who  labor,  while  the  increase 
of  our  wealth  passes  largeh'  into  the  hands  of 
those  for  whom  they  labor. 

Conceding  for  the  argument  that  this  accu- 
mulation of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  few  is 
legitimate  according  to  present  standards,  the 
question  must  arise  as  to  the  righteousness  of 
the  standards.  That  is,  knowing  that  the  effici- 
ency and  therefore  the  productiveness  of  labor  is 


CAUSES  OF  POVERTY  73 

all  the  while  increasing,  while  at  the  same  time 
poverty  is  increasing  among  the  laboring  classes, 
we  seem  forced  to  one  of  two  conclusions :  either 
the  laboring  classes  as  a  class  are  careless  and 
thriftless,  and  successful  employers  as  a  class 
are  careful  and  thrifty,  a  position  that  could  not 
be  successfully  maintained;  or,  this  increasing 
disparity  of  conditions  is,  in  part  at  least,  a  result 
of  inequitable  division  of  the  products  of  labor. 
It  cannot  be  charged  to  the  incompetency  of  the 
laboring  classes,  because  their  competency  is  an 
important  contributing  factor  to,  and  therefore 
evidenced  by  the  increase  of  wealth.  The  con- 
clusion is  that  a  very  considerable  part  of  in- 
creasing poverty  is  the  result  of  inequitable  di- 
vision of  the  products  of  labor,  and  therefore 
that  society  is  not  guaranteeing  to  every  man  an 
adequate  and  fair  opportunity  for  an  average 
life  task,  and  that  therefore  society  is  itself  re- 
sponsible for  a  share,  perhaps  a  large  share,  of 
prevalent  poverty. 

The  author  is  not  a  socialist.     Much  of  the 
teaching  and  conclusions  of  socialism  he  cannot 


74  ClililSTIAMTY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

endorse.  But  of  one  thing  he  is  convinced ;  that 
is,  that  much  that  they  and  others  outside  their 
ranks  claim  as  to  unrighteous  attitudes  toward 
the  producing  classes  is  true.  And  hence,  that 
to  the  extent  that  society  endorses  and  tolerates 
those  attitudes,  to  that  extent  society  is  itself 
responsible  for  present  and  increasing  poverty. 

After  there  has  been  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
poor  all  the  blame  that  justly  attaches  to  them, 
if  justice  is  done,  a  large  share  of  blame  for  pov- 
erty must  be  laid  at  the  door  of  those  who  "op- 
press the  hireling  in  his  wages."  And,  it  is  the 
duty,  as  it  is  the  right,  of  society  to  effect  an 
equitable  adjustment  in  these  relations,  to  the 
end  that  justice  shall  be  done  between  man  and 
man,  and  that  righteousness  may  be  the  watch- 
word of  the  nation. 

What,  then,  are  the  causes  of  poverty? 

Certain  conditions  that,  as  far  as  we  can  see, 
are  unavoidable  by  either  the  individual  or  by 
society. 

Certain  personal  conditions  or  character- 
istics that  are  voidable  only  by  the  individual. 


CAUSES  OF  POVERTY  75 

Certain  conditions  that  exist  by  consent  or 
authority  of  society,  and  are  voidable  only  by 
society. 

One  thing,  liowever,  all  can  clearly  see  is, 
that  these  voidable  conditions,  whether  by  the 
individual  or  by  society',  have  their  origin  or  ba- 
sis in  defective  moral  conceptions  and  attitudes. 
Selfishness  is  a  moral  defect;  dishonesty,  greed, 
inhumanity,  indolence,  wastefulness,  and  all  the 
related  manifestations  are  the  expressions  of 
moral  defect.  Hence  the  effective  removal  of 
those  causes  of  poverty  that  are  the  product  of 
these  or  of  any  of  them,  awaits  the  development 
of  higher  moral  conceptions  and  attitudes  in  both 
the  individual  and  in  society. 

Here  appears  in  an  important  sense  the  so- 
cial mission  of  Christianity,  and  the  social  task 
of  the  church  the  agency  for  the  promotion  of 
Christianity.  The  church  must  both  teach  and 
exemplify  the  social  teachings  of  the  gospel.  It 
must  labor  to  secure  the  general  and  practical 
application  of  tlie  gospel  of  Christ;  to  awaken 
in  men  and  women  higher  moral  conceptions  and 


76  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

^\'in  til  em  to  higher  moral  attitudes ;  to  win  them 
above  all  things  else  to  a  personal  acceptance  of 
Jesus  Christ,  that  bv  the  vitalizing  power  of  his 
own  life  and  Spirit  they  may  be  rendered  capable 
of  attaining  to  liigher  attitudes  in  personal  liv- 
ing and  in  social  conduct.  This  is  fundamental 
work.  AVithout  it,  legislation,  instruction  can 
accomplish  but  little. 

It  is  an  immense  task ;  but  it  is  the  task  that 
the  church  must  perform  before  there  can  ever 
come  the  social  regeneration  that  the  welfare  of 
the  race  demands. 


V. 

THE  ABATEMENT  OF  POVERTY 


THE  ABATEMENT  OF  POVEETY 

This  is  a  large  subject.  Only  what  seem  to 
be  some  fundamental  conditions  can  be  pre- 
sented, and  these  chiefly  in  outline. 

Under  "Causes  of  Poverty,"  the  following 
were  named: 

Certain  conditions  in  nature  that,  so  far  as 
can  now  be  seen,  are  not  wholly  voidable  either 
by  society  or  by  the  individual. 

Certain  personal  conditions  that  are  voidable 
only  by  the  individual. 

Certain  conditions  that  exist  by  the  authority 
or  consent  of  society,  and  are  avoidable  only  by 
society. 

It  will  be  readily  conceded  that  if  this  diag- 
nosis of  causes  is  correct,  then  any  effective  ef- 
fort to  abate  poverty  must  relate  to  the  removal 
of  either  natural,  personal,  or  social  causes. 

As  to  natural  causes,  unpreventable  calam- 
ities, unavoidable  disease  and  accident,  it  is  not 

79 


80  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

probable  that  they  will  ever  be  wholly  removed. 
But  that  much  more  will  be  done  toward  their 
removal  or  modification  than  has  been  done, 
there  is  no  reason  to  question.  Progress  in  med- 
ical science  in  the  past  fifty  years,  and  especially 
the  many  recent  discoveries  in  that  field,  seem  to 
justify  the  hope  that  in  the  not  distant  future 
there  will  be  little  of  what  may  be  termed  really 
unavoidable  disease,  provided  society  will  be 
wise  enough  to  require,  and  when  necessary,  com- 
pel the  application  and  use  of  tlie  accredited  re- 
sults of  medical  achievement. 

Scientific  investigation  and  invention  in 
other  fields  have  accomplished  so  much  that  we 
are  justified  in  hoping  that  in  the  near  future 
the  destructiveness  of  natural  calamities  and  the 
range  of  unavoidable  accidents  will  be  greatly 
reduced,  if  society  will  do  its  duty  in  applying 
the  results  of  investigation  and  invention. 

Scientific  investigation  and  invention  will 
contribute  largely  also  to  the  reduction  of  pov- 
erty by  means  of  a  more  effective  development  of 
natural  resources.     Kecent  achievements  in  pro- 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF   POVERTY  81 

moting  increased  productiveness  of  the  soil,  in 
the  improvement  of  natural  products,  and  the 
prevention  of  mineral  waste,  are  but  promises  of 
the  greater  things  yet  to  be  accomplished  in  the 
direction  of  development,  and  in  the  opening  of 
new  lines  of  production  and  industry. 

Passing  to  the  consideration  of  personal 
causes,  whether  they  be  classed  under  the  gen- 
eral head  of  disability,  physical  or  intellectual; 
or  under  the  head  of  indifference,  embracing  in- 
dolence, criminality,  and  wastefulness;  it  must 
be  clear  to  any  one  that  thinks  carefully,  that  in 
very  large  part  these  causes  have  their  basis  in 
defective  moral  conditions;  that  is,  in  failure 
somewhere,  either  in  the  individual,  or  in  his 
jiarents  or  ancestors,  or  in  society  at  large,  to 
recognize  and  discharge  some  of  the  obligations 
of  man  to  man.  Some  of  these  conditions  are  be- 
ing recognized  as  directly  the  result  of  physical 
defects  in  the  individual.  Those  will  be  cared 
for  through  proper  surgical  or  medical  attention. 

When  we  pause  to  consider  social  causes, 
whether  in  the  failure  of  society  to  create  con- 


82  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

ditions  such  that  its  every  member  will  be  well 
born,  well  reared,  and  well  trained;  or  whether 
in  the  failure  of  society  to  secure  to  its  every 
member,  as  far  as  possible,  adequate  and  fair 
opportunity,  these  failures  of  society  also  have 
their  basis  ultimately  in  defective  moral  condi- 
tions— that  is,  in  failure  of  society  to  recognize 
and  discharge  some  of  the  obligations  which  so- 
ciety owes  to  men  individually,  or  to  itself. 

Whatever  may  be  the  cause  of  these  defective 
moral  conditions,  and  whatever  may  be  necessary 
to  their  correction,  it  must  be  seen  first  of  all 
that  primarily  they  lie  at  the  basis  of  practically 
all  poverty  that  is  not  the  result  of  natural 
causes.  The  extreme  poverty  in  China  is  not  the 
result  simply  of  her  immense  population,  but 
largely  the  result  of  her  superstitions  that  have 
prevented  anything  like  an  adequate  develop- 
ment of  her  natural  resources.  And  supersti- 
tion is  a  moral  defect. 

That  is,  conceding  that  natural  resources  if 
discovered  and  utilized  are  ample,  if  throughout 
the  history  of  the  race  each  man  and  each  woman 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF  POVERTY  83 

_       _  _____ 

liad  been  morally  normal,  recognizing  and  dis- 
charging all  obligations  to  fellow-man,  and  if, 
as  a  consequence,  society  had  always  been  mor- 
ally normal,  then  poverty  as  the  result  of  per- 
sonal and  social  causes  would  not  exist.  Hence 
its  permanent  abatement  awaits  the  creation  of 
normal  moral  conditions. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  meeting  of  moral 
obligation  would  not  guarantee  physical  and  in- 
tellectual ability.  But  this  is  largely  a  mistake. 
Most,  if  not  all,  congenital  physical  defects,  as 
well  as  most  if  not  all  of  congenital  mental  im- 
becility, has  its  origin  in  the  violation  of  moral 
obligation  somewhere.  Besides,  the  recognition 
and  discharge  of  moral  obligations  upon  the 
part  of  the  individual  and  of  society  would  result 
in  providing  adequate  means,  facilities,  and  con- 
ditions for  such  universal  intellectual  and  phys- 
ical training  as  would  prepare  men  adequately 
for  their  life  task. 

The  point  made  is,  that  the  fundamental  need 
in  order  to  the  effective  and  permanent  solution 
of  this  problem  of  poverty  is  not,  as  some  hold. 


84  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

a  political  need,  nor  a  social  need  properly  speak- 
ing-, but  a  moral  need.  This  need  may  be  named 
a  universal,  moral  regeneration.  The  man  or  the 
woman  that  is  lazy,  that  induces  physical  or  iu- 
tcUectnal  disability  by  evil  habits,  that  is  crim- 
inal, that  is  wasteful  or  extravaj^ant,  has  low 
moral  conceptions,  and  the  fundamental  need,  in 
order  to  the  abatement  of  the  poverty  that  re- 
sults, is  the  elevation  of  all  such  to  higher  moral 
standards. 

And  when  society  permits  conditions  that 
necessarily  entail  ill  breeding  Avith  consequent 
physical  or  intellectual  debilitation ;  when  it 
authorizes  or  tolerates  institutions  that  promote 
drunkenness  and  licentiousness;  when  it  fails 
to  provide  and  require  attendance  upon  adequate 
facilities  for  preparation  for  life;  when  it  au- 
thorizes or  tolerates  conditions  that  deny  to  peo- 
ple adequate  and  fair  opportunities;  when  it 
tolerates  conditions  that  deny  adequate  com- 
pensation for  labor  or  impose  unjust  prices  in 
trade — when  such  conditions  exist,  then  society 
is  controlled  by  low  ideals,  and  the  primary  need 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF   POVERTY  85 


is  to  elevate  to  higher  moral  conceptions  those 
members  of  society  who  practice  and  impose 
these  injustices.  In  other  words,  there  is  no  pos- 
sibility of  a  general  and  permanent  elevation  of 
economic  conditions  except  as  there  is  first  de- 
veloped an  elevated  standard  of  moral  ideas  and 
practices.  The  great  need  in  order  to  permanent 
removal  of  poverty  is  not  more  money  in  the 
pockets  of  the  people,  but  more  genuine  manhood 
in  their  lives. 

"God,  give  ns  men ;  a  time  like  this  demands 
Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith,  and 
ready  hands." 

This  is  a  fundamental  economic  need  as  well 
as  a  fundamental  patriotic  need,  and  it  will  be 
supplied  only  by  the  elevation  of  moral  concep- 
tions. 

But  it  will  be  said  that,  even  conceding  all 
this,  the  process  is  too  slow;  it  will  require  too 
much  time.  We  must  have  more  immediate  help. 
Hence  the  feeling  that  we  must  try  to  do  me- 
chanically and  therefore  temporarily  by  legal 
enactment  what  ought   to   be  wrought   perma- 


86  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

nentlj  by  moral  forces,  and  must  be  if  perma- 
nent results  are  to  be  attained. 

There  is  need,  and  there  is  possibility  of  a 
measure  of  relief,  in  the  mechanical  way;  but 
only  to  the  measure  that  the  average  moral  sen- 
timent is  high  enough  to  establish  and  enforce 
the  legal  measures  necessary  to  compel  obedience 
upon  the  part  of  those  who  are  controlled  by 
selfish  motives.  Beyond  that  point  there  is  no 
possibility  of  relief  by  legal  or  other  mechanical 
measures. 

It  will  be  recognized  that  as  we  move  in  this 
direction  of  mechanical  effort  we  are  liable  to 
move  also  toward  some  sclieme  of  social  control; 
this,  however,  does  not  necessarily  imply  either 
so-called  political  socialism,  or  the  minifying  of 
individual  obligation ;  but  it  does  mean  that  in- 
dividual effort  for  the  abatement  of  poverty 
shall  be  encouraged,  and  if  need  be  that  the  indi- 
vidual shall  be  compelled  by  society  to  act  in 
conformity  with  generally  accredited  ideas  rel- 
ative to  economic  welfare. 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF   POVERTY  87 

What  then  may,  and  what  should  society  do 
looking  to  the  abatement  of  poverty? 

It  is  evident  that  whatever  society  does  must 
be  done  nnder  one  of  two  general  heads.  That 
is  the  action  of  society  looking  toward  the  abate- 
ment of  poverty  nmst  be  directed  either  toward 
limiting  or  directing  individual  action  relative 
to  economic  conditions;  or,  toward  the  limiting 
or  directing  of  the  actions  of  organizations  or  of 
society  relative  to  economic  conditions.  It  may 
operate  in  either  or  both  of  these  relations. 

This  last  statement  suggests  several  great 
questions  that  have  risen,  especially  under  the 
various  forms  of  democratic  political  organ- 
ization. Some  of  these  questions  are,  "What  is 
the  true  limit  to  individual  activity?"  "How  far 
may  society  proceed  to  substitute  the  judgment, 
will,  methods,  and  activity  of  society  for  the 
judgment,  will,  methods,  and  activity  of  the  in- 
dividual, and  compel  the  individual  to  submit  to 
such  substitution?" 

These  are  general  questions,  the  discussion  of 
which  cannot  be  entered  upon  here,  further  than 


88  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

to  express  a  few  thoughts  that  may  bear  upon 
them,  which  relate  also  to  the  subject  under  im- 
mediate consideration. 

It  would  seem  reasonable  to  sa}^  that,  along 
with  the  right  to  encourage  ever^^thing  that  will 
promote  general  moral  uplift,  society  has  also 
the  right  to  emphasize  and  encourage  the  recog- 
nition of  and  compliance  with  essential  economic 
conditions,  and  in  some  relations  to  compel  com- 
pliance with  them. 

It  might  be  too  much  to  say  that  society  has 
the  right  to  forbid  and  punish  habits  of  extrav- 
agance and  waste.  But  it  should  at  least  provide 
instruction  that  will  encourage  care  and  econ- 
omy. 

It  certainly  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  soci- 
ety has  the  right  to  compel  those  that  are  indo- 
lent and  criminal,  and  addicted  to  drunkenness 
and  vice,  to  submit  to  conditions  under  which  it 
would  be  necessary  for  them  to  perform  labor 
adequate  to  the  support  of  themselves  and  of 
those  dependent  upon  them.  Such  persons  should 
be  compelled  to  labor  under  healthful  and  ele- 


THE   ABATEAIENT   OF   POVERTY  89 

vating  conditions  for  a  reasonable  wage,  the  ex- 
cess of  which  above  the  cost  of  their  support, 
should  be  turned  over  to  those  who  are  depend- 
ent upon  them,  or  related  to  them,  or,  kept  for 
their  own  use  after  they  shall  have  acquired  hab- 
its of  industry,  integrity,  and  frugality.  The 
present  practice  of  confining  men  in  prison  and 
farming  out  their  labor  to  heartless  exploiters 
for  almost  nothing,  with  no  regard  for  those  de- 
pendent upon  them,  and  without  regard  to  their 
own  future,  is  a  relic  of  barbarism,  and  a  dis- 
grace to  modern  intelligence  and  philanthropy. 
Society  has  also  the  right  and  is  in  duty 
bound,  in  the  interest  of  improved  economic  con- 
ditions, to  abate  the  saloon,  the  gambling  den, 
and  the  brothel,  for  the  reason  that  they  are  not 
only  breeders  of  disease  and  vice,  but  also  be- 
cause they  are  two  of  the  prime  causes  of  pov- 
erty, and  neither  of  them  in  themselves  of  any 
value  to  society.  Wherever  society  fails  to  abate 
them,  these  institutions  stand  as  a  public  and 
emphatic  evidence  of  the  low  moral  conceptions 


90  CnRISTIAMTY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

and  purposes  of  the  state  or  the  nation  that  tol- 
erates them. 

Chaplain  Shallby,  formerly  of  the  Boys'  In- 
dustrial Home  at  Lancaster,  Ohio,  where  more 
than  five  Inmdred  boys  were  confined,  says  that 
about  ninety-fiye  per  cent,  of  them  were  there 
because  either  their  fathers  or  their  mothers 
were  addicted  to  drink.  The  tax  payers  of  Ohio 
liave  put  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  dollars 
into  permanent  improvements  for  this  institu- 
tion, besides  what  is  required  yearly  for  its  cur- 
rent maintenance.  Besides  this,  there  is  the 
awful  impoverishment  of  the  homes  from  which 
these  boys  come.  At  the  same  time  the  State  of 
Ohio  tolerates  and  authorizes  the  continuance 
of  the  brewery,  the  distillery,  and  the  saloon, 
which  are  responsible  for  at  least  half  the  drink- 
inj?  and  drunkenness  that  causes  these  conditions. 
This  is  indeed  "saving  at  the  spigot  and  wasting 
at  the  bunghole." 

Society  has  also  the  right  to  place  such  re- 
strictions on  immigration  as  is  necessary  to  pre- 
vent both  her  moral  decline,  and  the  impoverishr 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF   POVERTY  91 

ment  of  ber  people  by  increasing  population  be- 
yond ability  to  provide  adequate  support,  and 
should  do  so. 

Society  has  the  right  to  go  further  than  has 
been  expressed.  It  has  the  right,  and  is  in  duty 
bound,  so  to  govern  and  control  general  indus- 
trial and  commercial  institutions  as  to  guarantee 
to  the  largest  possible  degree  to  every  one  an 
adequate  and  a  fair  opportunity  for  his  life  task. 

So  far  as  known,  there  has  never  yet  been 
presented  evidence  sufficient  to  prove  that  any 
system  of  mechanical  equalization  of  possessions 
or  of  wealth  will  accomplish  anything  perma- 
nent in  the  way  of  the  abatement  of  poverty. 
Nor  has  there  yet  been  proof  beyond  theoretic 
statements  that  the  complete  socialization  of  in- 
dustry and  commerce  will  bring  permanent  re- 
lief from  poverty. 

This  is  very  far,  however,  from  saying  that 
nothing  can  be  done  by  society,  or  that  society 
has  no  duty  to  perform  in  relation  to  the  com- 
merce and  industries  of  the  country  with  a  view 
to  curbing  and  removing  the  causes  that  produce 


02  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

poverty.  The  fact  that  during  the  past  fifty 
years  the  developed  wealth  of  this  country  has 
been  gravitating-  with  alarming  rapidity  away 
from  the  producing  to  the  managing  classes,  and 
the  consequent  growing  poverty  among  the  pro- 
ducing classes,  along  with  other  conditions  in 
both  industry  and  commerce,  indicates  that  there 
is  injustice  in  prevailing  conditions,  and  as  well 
demonstrates  that  without  the  direct  aid  of  so- 
ciety the  toiling  masses  are  unable  to  secure 
and  husband  that  which  is  justly  theirs. 

Something  h^s  been  accomplished  at  cor- 
recting tliese  evils  hj  organization  upon  the  part 
of  the  laboring  classes;  this  should  be  highly 
appreciated ;  but  the  relief  has  not  been  and  can- 
not be  adequate.  One  result  of  prevailing  con- 
ditions of  injustice  and  of  inadequate  relief,  has 
been  the  awakening  of  a  spirit  of  revenge  border- 
ing on  desperation,  and  expressing  itself  in 
strikes,  riots,  and  dynamiting.  Such  practices 
are  unlawful,  and  must  be  suppressed;  but  as 
well  the  unwarranted  conditions  that  provoke 
this  spirit  must  be  changed.    For,  so  long  as  the 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF   POVERTY  93 

producing  causes  exist,  so  long  will  these  and 
similar  consequences  ensue.  If  these  conse- 
quences are  to  be  abolished,  there  must  be  dis- 
covered and  applied  means  for  the  abolishing  of 
the  producing  causes.  That  is,  there  must  be  dis- 
covered and  applied  a  method  by  which  society 
shall  compel  unwilling  employers  to  divide  to  the 
full  measure  of  justice  with  those  who  by  their 
toil  actually  produce  the  increase  of  wealth.  Or, 
expressing  it  otherwise,  society  must  reach  a 
method  by  which  to  stop  the  aAvful  drainage  of 
the  produced  wealth  of  the  country  from  the 
hands  of  the  many  into  the  hands  of  the  few,  and 
thus  correct  the  conditions  that  now  prevail, 
when  seventy  and  five-tenths  per  cent,  of  the 
wealth  of  our  country  is  owned  by  nine-tenths  of 
one  per  cent,  of  the  people  of  our  country. 

Unless  and  until  this  is  done,  and  the  conse- 
quent inevitable  poverty  resultant  therefrom 
abated,  the  laboring  population  will  continue  to 
protest;  and  the  indications  are  that  unless  this 
is  done  and  done  speedily,  they  will  compel  its 
doing  hj  measures  that  may  threaten  death  to 


94  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

private  industry  and  enterprise,  a  calamity  too 
great  to  be  borne  by  tliis  or  any  nation. 

The  refusal  of  business  men  in  the  days  of 
Amos  to  do  justice,  and  the  failure  of  Judah  and 
Israel  to  compel  such  justice,  brought  poverty 
to  the  great  body  of  the  Jews,  and  brought  the 
curse  of  God  upon  the  kingdoms,  and  was  one  of 
the  causes  that  led  to  their  overthrow.  God  Al- 
mighty- is  just  as  determined  that  justice  shall  be 
done  to-day  as  he  was  then.  He  sees  to-day,  as 
clearly  as  he  saw  then,  the  injustice  and  the  dan- 
ger of  conditions  that  result  in  the  congestion  of 
wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  in  the  conse- 
quent robbery  of  millions  who  have  thus  been 
deprived  of  what  was  justly'  theirs;  and  he  says 
to-day  as  he  said  then,  "Cease  to  do  evil;  learn 
to  do  well ;  seek  judgment;  relieve  the  oppressed ; 
judge  the  fatherless;  plead  for  the  widow.'' 

Society  must  just  as  truly  and  efYectively  con- 
Irol  those  who  for  their  selfish  gratification  seek 
to  incite  strikes,  and  riots,  and  revolution.  It  is 
true  that  injustice  is  practiced  on  many  of  the 
toiling  masses;  but  it  is  just  as  certainly  true 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF   POVERTY  95 

t])at  many  laboring  men  disregard  the  rights  of 
employers,  and  of  choice  contribute  to  the  pro- 
motion of  unrest  and  disquiet. 

Just  how  society  shall  proceed  to  correct 
these  evils,  whether  in  part  by  the  minimum 
wage  plan,  or  through  public  supervision  and 
control  of  public  and  semi-public  industries,  or 
by  some  combination  of  these  or  other  plans,  it 
will  take  time  to  demonstrate.  But  if  poverty 
is  to  be  to  any  reasonable  degree  abated  or  even 
checked,  some  plan  must  be  reached  whereby  the 
laboring  man  shall  have  either  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, a  voice  in  determining  how  the  fruits  of 
his  toil  shall  be  divided;  a  voice  adequate  to 
guaranteeing  him  justice  in  the  common  race  of 
life ;  and  the  employer  as  well  guaranteed  against 
the  loss  imposed  by  conscienceless  and  anarch- 
ical laboring  men. 

But  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  poverty 
from  the  side  of  society  means  not  only  the  se- 
curing of  justice  in  remuneration,  but  it  means 
as  well  the  securing  of  protection  against  exploi- 
tation in  trade. 


96  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

It  would  be  imwise  to  institute  any  system 
that  would  remove  the  impulse  to  individual  in- 
itiative. But  it  is  also  destructively  unjust  to 
tolerate  a  system  or  a  condition  in  which  com- 
mercial or  professional  interests  are  protected  in 
the  practice  of  legal  robbery  to  the  impoverish- 
ment of  the  people,  or  to  depriving  them  of  nec- 
essary physical  nourishment  and  protection. 

The  present  and  increasing  high  cost  of  living 
unites  Avith  the  recent  successful  prosecution  of 
great  corporations  to  prove  that,  whatever  other 
conditions  may  be  responsible,  yet  the  poor  are 
being  robbed  by  great  commercial  enterprises  at 
the  same  time  that  they  are  being  stinted  by  in- 
dustrial injustice.  And,  they  are  equally  help- 
less in  each  case.  If  poverty  is  to  be  abated  the 
rapacity  of  selfish  tradesmen  as  well  as  the  greed 
of  heartless  employers  must  be  checked  and  abol- 
ished. 

It  is  said  that  the  trouble  is  not  so  much  the 
high  cost  of  li\ing,  as  the  cost  of  high  living. 
There  may  be  an  element  of  truth  in  this.  But 
there  are  certain  elements  of  nutriment  and  of 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF   POVERTY  97 

elotliing  essential  to  health  and  vigor;  and  the 
price  of  even  these  elements  is  to-day  quite  as 
much  under  the  artificial  control  of  selfish  greed 
as  is  the  price  of  elements  that  border  on  the 
luxuries.  These  conditions  render  it  imperative 
for  society  to  interfere  and  provide  for  the  super- 
vision of  trade  as  well  as  of  industry.  The  same 
principles  require  that  society  shall,  with  increas- 
ing care  and  vigor,  control  the  great  agencies  of 
transportation  and  communication.  Recent  su- 
gar, insurance,  and  railroad  scandals,  ferreted 
out  and  proved  before  the  highest  courts  of  the 
nation,  are  ample  proof  of  all  these  needs. 

How  then  shall  poverty  be  abated? 

Remedial  measures  looking  to  this  end  must 
be  adopted  and  put  into  effect  by  society,  looking 
to  improved  physical  and  intellectual  equipment 
and  qualification ;  looking  as  well  to  the  abolition 
of  drunkenness  and  drunkard  making;  looking 
to  the  abolition  of  racial  degeneration  by  any 
and  all  of  the  social  vices ;  the  brewery,  the  dis- 
tillery, the  saloon,  the  brothel,  the  gambling  den, 
must  all  go.     There  must  also  be  better  provi- 


98  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

sion  looking  to  effective  preparation  for  life 
work. 

Along  with  this  society  must  so  control  both 
the  productive  and  commercial  industries  and 
institutions  as  that  justice  shall  be  done  to  all, 
thus  providing  at  least  a  fair  opportunity  to  all. 

But  back  of  all  this,  and  as  the  fundamental 
condition  of  it  all,  there  must  come  general 
moral  uplift,  until  men  and  women  shall  choose 
to  be  industrious,  sober,  clean,  and  thrifty;  un- 
til captains  of  industry',  and  masters  of  com- 
merce, and  laboring  men,  shall  love  justice  and 
do  it,  and  sliall  hate  iniquity  and  avoid  it. 

But  moral  uplift  comes  only  through  the 
quickening  of  conscience,  and  this  only  through 
a  clearer  knowledge  and  recognition  of  obliga- 
tion to  God  and  to  man,  and  finally  through  the 
quickening  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the 
life  of  the  individual  and  in  society. 

Here  then  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion 
that  at  its  very  basis,  the  solution  of  this  pov- 
erty rests,  not  upon  the  politician ;  not  upon  the 
social  worker  as  such;  not  upon  the  philanthro 


THE   ABATEMENT   OF   POVERTY  99 

pist ;  not  upon  legal  mechanics ;  but  distinctively 
\ipon  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  agency  for 
promoting  the  Christian  system.  The  church 
must  arouse.  Hence  it  is  that  the  editor  of  the 
Wall  Street  Journal,  the  great  commercial  pa- 
per, said  editorially  a  few  j^ears  ago,  that  the 
great  need  of  our  country,  viewed  from  the  eco- 
nomic side  is  a  revival;  a  revival  of  genuine 
righteousness.  It  is  but  the  repetition  of  the 
need  as  Jehovah  saw  it,  when  he  said  by  the 
lips  of  the  prophet  Amos, 

"Let  justice  roll  down  as  waters,  and  right- 
eousness as  a  mighty  stream." 

The  church  is  the  only  institution  that  ac- 
cepts as  its  distinct  obligation  and  mission  the 
quickening  of  the  conscience,  the  elevation  of 
moral  standards,  the  regeneration  of  the  indi- 
vidual, and  through  him  the  regeneration  of  so- 
ciety. 

Hence  the  church  must  be  brought  to  the 
clearer  recognition  of  her  duty  to  society,  and 
must  be  brought  to  bend  her  energies  more  ef- 
fectively to  the  discharge  of  that  mission,  until 


100  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

lier  "righteousness  shall  go  forth  as  brightness, 
and  her  salvation  as  a  lamp  that  burneth." 


VI. 
THE  PROBLEM  OP  DIVORCE 


VI. 

THE  PROBLEM   OP  DIVORCE 

There  is  a  problem  of  divorce,  an  exceedingly 
complex  problem;  a  social  problem,  upon  the 
satisfactory  and  effective  solution  of  which  de- 
pends to  a  very  large  degree  the  attainment  of 
true  social  welfare. 

What  solution  of  this  problem  does  the  Chris- 
tian system  propose? 

The  answer  can  be  reached  only  by  way  of 
a  careful  consideration  of  the  problem  itself. 

However  vexing  the  question  of  divorce  is  to- 
day, it  is  helpful  to  know  that  it  is  not  wholly  a 
question  of  modern  times.  It  was  a  vexing  ques- 
tion in  the  days  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  had  been 
for  centuries. 

The  Old  Testament  or  Jewish  law  of  divorce, 
or  of  legal  separation  of  husband  and  wife  is 
(Duet.  21 : 1,  2) ,  "When  a  man  taketh  a  wife  and 
marrieth  her,  then  it  shall  be,  if  she  find  no  fa- 
vor in  his  eyes,  because  he  hath  found  some  un- 
seemly thing  in  her,  that  he  shall  write  her  a  bill 

103 


104  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

of  divorcement,  and  give  it  in  lier  hand,  and  send 
her  out  of  his  house.  And  when  she  is  departed 
out  of  his  house,  she  may  go  and  be  another 
man's  wife."  It  is  clear  that  this  is  a  very  lib- 
eral law,  allowing  legal  separation  upon  the 
simple  ground  that  the  wife  "finds  no  favor  in 
his  eyes,  because  he  hath  found  something  un- 
seemly in  her."  Neither  does  it  require  any 
court  proceedings,  but  simply  the  giving  of  a 
written  "bill  of  divorcement."  This  gave  wide 
room  for  diversity  of  interpretation,  the  result 
of  which  was  a  divided  mind  among  the  Jews,  one 
section  holding  with  Eabbi  Schammai  that  di- 
vorce was  allowable  only  in  case  of  moral  trans- 
gression, which  as  some  say  was  limited  to  uu- 
chastity.  Another  section  held  with  Rabbi  Hil- 
lel  who  gave  the  law  a  much  more  liberal  inter- 
pretation. 

The  result  was  a  great  laxity  of  the  marriage 
relation,  the  husband  being  allowed  to  repudiate 
his  wife  for  any  reason  that  rendered  her  dis- 
tasteful to  him,  even  for  the  trivial  offense  of 
spoiling  his  dinner.    It  is  to  be  noticed  also  that 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  DIVORCE  105 

the  right  to  give  divorce  belonged  only  to  the 
husband.  The  wife  might  make  no  reply,  nor 
might  she  sever  her  connection  with  her  hus- 
band, no  matter  how  much  he  might  lack  favor 
in  her  eyes.    The  Jews  had  a.  problem  of  divorce. 

Conditions  were  still  worse  among  the  Ro- 
mans. Emperor  Augustus  tried  to  check  this 
source  of  ruin  to  the  family  by  enacting  stricter 
laws,  but  without  avail.  Septimus  Severus  made 
a  special  effort  to  check  the  growing  profligacy 
and  demoralization  of  the  family,  but  public 
morals  were  on  too  low  a  plain,  and  the  effort 
failed.    Rome,  too,  had  a  problem  of  divorce. 

The  inauguration  and  spread  of  Christianity 
led  to  a  better  condition  of  morals,  contributing 
largely  to  the  re-establishing  of  the  sanctity  of 
the  marriage  relation  and  of  the  home,  thus  giv- 
ing hope  of  an  entirely  new  order.  But  there  has 
come  in  more  modern  times  such  a  marked 
change,  such  an  increase  of  divorce,  especially 
in  our  own  country,  as  to  raise  the  question. 
What  is  wrong,  and  what  can  be  done  to  check 
this  growing  evil?    Indeed  so  startling  have  con- 


106  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

ditions  become  in  this  relation  that  they  have  al- 
ready created  alarm  lest  the  very  foundations  of 
the  family  and  the  home  be  entirely  swept  away. 

Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright,  late  United  States 
Commissioner  of  Labor,  is  authority  for  the 
statement  that  in  the  United  States  the  number 
of  divorces  increased  from  9,937  in  1887  to  72,062 
in  1906 — that  is,  while  during  that  period  of 
twenty  years  the  population  of  the  United  States 
increased  ninety-seven  per  cent.,  divorce  in- 
crease seven  hundred  and  twenty-five  per  cent., 
or  nearly  seven  and  one-half  times  as  fast  as  pop- 
ulation increased.  An  eminent  authority  esti- 
mates that  if  divorce  continues  to  increase  at 
this  rate,  by  the  year  2000,  fifty-eight  and  eight- 
tenths  per  cent,  of  all  marriages  will  be  termi- 
nated by  divorce.  Hon.  Carroll  D.  Wright  says 
that  the  situation  as  to  divorce  in  the  United 
States  is  unparalleled  in  any  other  country. 
Very  surely  there  is  a  divorce  problem  in  the 
United  States. 

How  does  the  Christian  system  propose  to 
deal  with  this  problem? 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  DIVORCE  107 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  United  States  of 
America  is  admitted  to  be  the  field  of  the  most 
aggressive  type  of  Christianity,  and  also  the  field 
presenting  largest  increase  in  divorce,  this  ques- 
tion seems  quite  difficult  to  answer. 

Since  these  two  facts  co-exist,  it  might  read- 
ily be  concluded  tliat  Christianity  is  itself  the 
cause  of  increasing  divorce,  and  that  therefore 
the  most  practical  way  in  which  to  diminish 
divorce  would  be  to  diminish  or  discontinue  en- 
tirely Christian  activity.  Viewed  superficially, 
this  answer  would  seem  to  be  entirely  logical. 
Indeed  there  may  be  a  sense  in  which  the  aggress- 
ive promulgation  of  the  Christian  system  is  the 
occasion  of  the  increasing  divorce,  a  conclusion 
it  is  difficult  to  evade,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  in 
this  country  Avhere  exists  the  most  aggressive 
type  of  Christianity,  there  is  also  the  largest  in- 
crease in  divorce. 

But  if  Christianity  is  the  true  social  as  well 
as  the  true  religious  system,  and  even  if  it  be 
found  true  that  its  promulgation  is  in  some 
sense  the  occasion  of  increasing  divorce,  then 


108  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

there  must  be  somewhere  a  fallacy  in  the  argu- 
ment by  which  it  should  be  concluded  that  the 
shortest  route  to  the  diminishing  of  divorce  is 
to  discontinue  Christian  activity.  Where  is  that 
fallacy? 

It  will  probably  be  found  in  tlie  very  common 
conception  that  the  increase  of  divorce  is  in  itself 
inherently  an  evil,  instead  of  regarding  it  as  a 
symptom  of  greater  evils  lying  back,  and  which 
themselves  cause  increasing  divorce.  Some  who 
look  upon  increase  of  divorce  as  wholly  an  evil, 
charge  its  prevalence  and  rapid  increase  to  lax 
laws  relative  to  marriage  and  to  still  laxer  laws 
relative  to  divorce  itself.  It  is  quite  possible 
that  this  conclusion  has  some  basis,  indeed  a 
very  important  basis  in  fact. 

Statistics  are  not  complete  enough  to  justify 
a  definite  conclusion.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  adheres  strictly  to  its  interpretation  of 
the  New  Testament  law  of  divorce,  denying  the 
right  to  such  an  absolving  of  the  marriage  rela- 
tion as  will  allow  remarriage.  To  substantiate 
her  claim  that  her  position  is  right,  she  cites  the 


THE  PROBLEM  OP  DIVORCE  109 

fact  that  while  in  other  than  Catholic  families 
there  was,  during  a  certain  period,  one  divorce 
to  each  442  couples,  in  Catholic  families  there 
was  only  one  divorce  to  each  1766  couples. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  however,  that  among 
the  more  fully  Americanized  Jews,  who  have  no 
such  rigid  rule  as  the  Catholics  have,  divorce  is 
not  nearly  as  frequent  as  among  Gentiles  other 
than  Catholics.  This  seems  to  contradict  the 
claim  that  simple  laxity  of  legal  enactment  is  the 
cause  of  increasing  divorce. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  lax  divorce  laws 
are  to  some  degree,  it  may  be  to  considerable 
degree,  the  occasion  of  frequent  divorce.  In  the 
United  States  there  are  at  least  forty-two 
grounds  upon  which  divorce  can  be  secured,  as 
shown  by  the  varying  divorce  laws  of  the  differ- 
ent States  of  the  Union.  Some  of  these  grounds 
are  remarkably  trivial.  It  is  stated  upon  good 
authority  that  in  one  of  our  States  a  divorce  was 
secured  because  the  husband  staid  out  from  home 
till  ten  o'clock  at  night;  in  another  because  the 
husband  did  not  wash  before  coming  home  froni 


110  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

work.     Such  laws  are  a  disgrace  to  Christian 
civilization. 

Divorce  should  be  made  more  difficult.  Hon. 
Carroll  D.  Wright  suggests  in  this  relation  four 
courses  of  procedure,  as  a  means  of  diminishing 
divorce: 

1.  Where  crime  is  alleged  as  a  plea  for  di- 
vorce, let  the  alleged  criminal  be  indicted  and 
tried  before  a  criminal  court,  and  punishment 
other  than  divorce  be  imposed. 

2.  Make  the  State  a  party  to  divorce  suits, 
so  that  both  applicant  and  defendant  can  be  ex- 
amined and  cross-examined  in  the  interest  of  the 
State. 

3.  Make  re-marriage  more  difficult. 

4.  Joint  action  by  State  legislatures.  Here 
is  shown  great  difficulty  growing  out  of  diversity 
of  laws. 

He  also  suggests  the  following  legislation  to 
prevent  ill-advised  marriages : 

1.  Publication  of  banns. 

2.  Punishment  for  reckless  marriage. 


THE  PROBLEM  OP  DIVORCE  111 

3.  Publication  in  marriage  license  of  facts 
recited  by  applicants. 

It  would  certainly  be  a  great  step  in  advance 
in  this  relation  if  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  would  enact  a  reasonable  marriage  and 
divorce  law,  that  shall  be  applicable  in  all  States 
of  the  Union. 

But  conceding  all  this,  it  still  remains  a.  ques- 
tion whether  by  this  means  divorce  would  be 
largely  and  permanenth'^  eliminated,  and  this  for 
the  reason  that  divorce  is  more  a  symptom  of 
evil  than  an  evil  itself.  That  is,  the  permament 
remedy  for  divorce  is  the  removal  of  the  evils 
that  cause  appeal  to  divorce  as  a  means  of  escape 
from  what  are  considered  greater  evils. 

It  needs  to  be  noticed  that  Jesus  himself 
did  not  forbid  divorce  absolutely,  and  in  not 
doing  so  he  said  practically  that  there  is  one 
thing  worse  than  the  separation  of  husband  and 
wife,  that  is,  infidelity  to  the  marriage  vow.  His 
language  in  relation  to  divorce  is  not  manda- 
tory ;  he  simply  points  the  consequences  that  fol- 
low where  it  exists,  except  for  the  one  cause. 


112  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

From  this  it  seems  reasonable  to  conclude  that 
Jesus  would  teach  that  evils  attendant  upon  a 
violation  of  the  marriage  relation  are  not  to  be 
remedied  by  simple  legal  enactment.  There  must 
be  something  that  strikes  deeper  than  this  ex- 
ternal symptom.  In  other  words,  divorce  if  in 
any  sense  tolerated  by  Jesus  Christ,  is  tolerated 
upon  the  same  grounds  that  it  was  tolerated  and 
authorized  by  Moses,  because  of  the  hardness  or 
wickedness  of  men's  hearts;  because  of  the  evils 
that  lie  back  of  and  give  occasion  to  this  more 
manifest  evil. 

This  leads  to  the  question,  What  is  the  cause 
of  the  increase  of  divorce? 

God  made  man  male  and  female,  and  In- 
tended them,  upon  the  consummation  of  mar- 
riage to  be  one  flesh.  But  now  wo  find  men  and 
women  who  have  been  joined  in  hol}^  wedlock, 
for  one  or  anotlior  of  more  than  forty  reasons 
trying  to  sever  the  bonds  tliat  were  intended  to 
hold  them  together  ''till  death  do  us  part." 

Why  is  it? 


THE  PROBLEM  OF   DIVORCE  .  113 

An  historic  view  is  necessary.  Without  ques- 
tion, marriage  and  the  family  are  of  divine  au- 
thority. But  sin  has  wrought  havoc  in  the  rela- 
tion of  the  sexes  as  well  as  in  every  other  rela- 
tion. Whatever  may  have  been  man's  original 
condition,  history  finds  him  in  process  of  de- 
velopment from  the  plane  of  barbarism  and 
savagery.  In  that  condition  woman  has  been 
invariably  the  sufferer.  As  Hon.  Carroll  Wright 
tells  us,  "The  facts  all  show  us  that,  however 
dissimilar  the  countries  or  the  epochs,  the  union 
of  man  and  woman  begin,  with  very  rare  excep- 
tions, by  the  complete  slavery  of  the  latter,  and 
her  assimilation  to  the  condition  of  the  domestic 
animals,  over  which  man  has  all  possible  rights, 
and  which  he  may  drive  away  at  will," 

This  is,  in  part,  a  picture  of  primitive  con- 
ditions among  the  Jewish  people  as  given  in  the 
Bible,  among  whom  poligamy  existed  to  a  con- 
siderable extent;  by  whom  wives  were  secured 
as  a  matter  of  barter  and  sale,  as  was  exempli- 
fied by  the  manner  in  which  Jacob  secured  his 
two  wives.     Even  as  late  as  the  period  of  the 


114:  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

Judges,  in  connection  with  the  incident  of  the 
slaughter  of  the  Benjamites  and  the  capture  of 
the  daughters  of  surrounding  tribes  for  wives, 
we  see  a  remarkably  close  approach  to  the  con- 
ditions that  prevailed  among  the  surrounding 
pagan  people,  as  illustrated  by  the  story  of  the 
rape  of  the  Sabines  in  Koman  history. 

But  as  the  ages  moved  on,  there  was  progress 
from  these  aboriginal  conditions  to  where  the 
wife  occupied  a  higher  plane,  and  yet  but  little 
above  a  slave  or  a  domestic  animal.  A  man 
could  kill  his  wife  if  she  displeased  him;  then 
he  could  simply  repudiate  her  and  drive  her 
away;  then  this  privilege  of  absolute  dismissal 
was  restricted,  and  woman  was  conceded  some 
initial  rights  of  her  own;  later  to  the  Jewish 
women  was  conceded  the  right  to  "put  away  her 
husband,"  not  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament, 
but  indicated  by  Jesus,  Mark  10 :  12. 

The  history  of  progress  in  the  matter  of  liber- 
ation of  woman  reveals  much  of  tragedy.  In 
some  countries  even  claiming  civilization,  she  is 
yet  but  little  more  than  the  menial  servant  of 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  DIVORCE  115 

man.  In  England  she  is  still  denied  the  right  of 
petition  for  divorce.  Progress  in  the  direction 
of  her  liberation  has  been  much  greater  in  the 
United  States,  and  yet  it  is  easily  within  the 
memory  of  many  now  living  that  she  was  not 
considered  the  intellectual  equal  of  men,  as  was 
evidenced  only  a  few  years  ago  by  many  Amer- 
ican colleges  prescribing  a  special  course  for 
females,  they  not  being  considered  capable  of 
doing  the  intellectual  work  prescribed  for  males. 
To-day  in  the  United  States  in  the  matter  of 
obtaining  divorce,  woman  stands  upon  a  prac- 
tical equality  with  man.  In  this  progress  to- 
wards fuller  recognition  of  woman's  equality 
with  man,  a  progress  that  has  been  very  rapid 
during  the  past  hundred  years  especially  in 
America,  is  to  be  seen  without  question  at  least 
occasion  of  the  rapid  increase  of  divorce.  This 
is  quite  clearly  evidenced  by  the  increasing  num- 
ber of  suits  for  divorce  brought  by  wives.  In  the 
year  ending  June  30,  1908,  in  the  State  of  Ohio 
there  were  almost  three  times  as  many  suits  for 
divorce  brought  by  wives  as  by  husbands.    Dur- 


116  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

ing  the  period  1871 — 1908,  in  the  same  State, 
there  were  almost  three  times  as  many  divorces 
granted  to  wives  as  to  husbands. 

It  thus  becomes  clear  that  under  the  Chris- 
tian dispensation,  especially  since  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  most  especially  since  the  establishment 
of  free  institutions  in  .Vmerica,  civil  and  reli- 
gious, there  has  been  a  gradual,  and  in  the  last 
half  century  a  very  rapid  emancipation  of  wo- 
man. In  America,  and  in  all  the  really  enlight- 
ened nations,  woman  is  no  longer  the  slave  or 
even  the  subordinate  of  man,  but  she  is  his  equal. 

In  our  own  country,  where  divorce  has  in- 
creased more  rapidl}^  than  in  any  other,  woman 
is  more  fuly  emancipated  from  abject  subjection 
to  man  than  in  any  other.  It  is  also  true  that 
here  she  is  more  honored,  more  respected,  and 
more  thoroughly  protected  than  elsewhere.  It 
is  also  true  that  in  no  country  is  she  happier 
than  here;  nor  is  there  any  country  where  she  is 
so  independent  of  man  as  she  is  in  this  country 
— and  all  this  is  the  result  of  her  larger  eman- 
cipation here. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  DIVORCE  117 

Is  it  not  reasonable,  therefore,  to  conclude 
that  in  the  emancipation  of  woman  is  an  expla- 
nation, at  least  in  part,  of  the  growing  prev- 
alence of  divorce.  Woman,  who  throughout  the 
ages  has  suffered  the  ills  that  have  been  imposed 
upon  her  with  no  opportunity  for  relief  or  re- 
dress, has  come  to  the  position  where  she  is  no 
longer  under  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  such 
enormities  as  practiced  in  the  past,  and  believ- 
ing that  divorce  and  separation  are  evils  of  less 
magnitude  than  abject  submission,  she  claims 
her  rights,  and  sues  for  liberation.  This  by  no 
means  accounts  for  all  divorces ;  not  even  for  all 
divorce  petitions  by  women;  neither  is  it  in- 
tended to  explain  or  excuse  divorce  for  trivial 
or  "aflflnitive"  reasons.  But  it  certainly  does 
account  for  a  large  measure  of  the  increase. 

And  further,  since  the  emancipation  of  wo- 
man, the  elevation  of  woman  to  a  position  of 
practical  equality  with  man,  is  a  result  of  the 
promulgation  and  application  of  the  principles 
of  Christianity,  it  may  very  justly  be  said  that 
the  spread  of  Christianity  is  itself,  indirectly,  an 


118  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

occasion,  not  the  cause,  of  the  increase  of  di- 
vorce. Follo\\ang  this  line  of  reasoning  it  might 
seem  logical  to  conclude  that  a  remedy  for  di- 
vorce would  be  to  cease  the  promulgation  of 
Christianity,  and  allow  woman  to  be  reduced 
back  to  her  former  condition  of  servitude.  This 
answer  might  seem  correct  if  divorce  were  nor, 
as  it  very  often  is,  an  avenue  of  escape  from  more 
remote  evils. 

But  if  divorce  is,  as  it  very  largely  is,  a  symp- 
tom of  evils  more  deeply  seated ;  if  lax  marriage 
laws  and  divorce  laws  are  themselves,  as  they 
are  very  generally,  the  result  of  low  moral  con- 
ceptions, then  the  real  remedy  for  divorce, 
whether  symptom  or  evil  in  itself,  is  the  creation 
of  a  moral  condition  that  will  elevate  marriage 
to  its  proper  position,  will  guarantee  to  woman 
the  respect  due  her  in  the  marriage  relation,  and 
will  render  possible  the  enactment  and  enforce- 
ment of  marriage  and  divorce  laws  such  as  the 
interests  of  society  demand;  that  will  not  only 
secure  to  woman  the  recognition  of  her  equality 
to,  and  equal  rights  with  man  before  the  law. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  DIVORCE  119 

bnt  a  moral  condition  such  as  will  secure  and 
guarantee  to  both  man  and  woman  such  char- 
acter and  such  disposition  as  will  make  marriage 
what  God  intended  and  the  interests  of  society 
demand  that  it  shall  be — a  state  of  mutual  affec- 
tion, mutual  respect,  and  mutual  forbearance, 
in  which  husbands  and  wives  shall  universally 
live  together  in  the  harmony  necessary  for  the 
effective  maintenance  of  the  home,  and  the 
proper  rearing  and  development  of  the  family. 

Here,  then,  is  the  solution  of  the  divorce 
problem  under  the  Christian  system.  Not  in 
the  stopping  of  Christian  activity,  but  in  pro- 
mulgating its  teaching,  its  spirit,  its  life,  with 
increasing  aggressiveness,  and  with  increasing 
regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  individual,  the  fam- 
ily, and  of  society  at  large. 

Better  homes  wait  for  better  husbands  and 
wives.  Better  families  await  the  presence  of 
better  fathers  and  better  mothers.  Diminished 
divorce,  the  abolition  of  divorce,,  awaits — yes,  the 
enactment  and  enforcement  of  better  laws;  but 
more  than  all,  the  elevation  of  manhood,  the 


120  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

elevation  of  womanhood  to  the  plane  where  the 
evils  of  passion,  the  evils  of  drunkenness,  the  evils 
of  brutality,  the  evils  of  inhumanity  and  injus- 
tice, the  evils  that  impel  to  divorce  are  them- 
selves abolished,  and  love,  true,  conjugal  love 
shall  reign  supreme  in  the  domestic  circle. 

To  accomplish  this  is,  at  least  in  part,  the 
mission  of  the  Christian  system,  and  to  the  meas- 
ure that  Christianity  accomplishes  this  task,  to 
that  extent  will  it  solve  effectively  the  problem 
of  divorce. 


VII. 
THE  PROBLEM  OF  VICE  AND  CRIME 


VIL 

THE  PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND  CRIME 

HosEA,  who  lived  750  B.  C,  in  describing  condi- 
tions in  Israel  at  that  time  said,  "There  is  no 
truth,  nor  goodness,  nor  knowledge  of  God  in  the 
land.  There  is  nothing  but  swearing  and  break- 
ing of  faith,  and  killing,  and  stealing,  and  com- 
mitting of  adultery;  they  break  out  and  blood 
toucheth  blood." 

It  is  an  awful  picture  of  moral  depravity,  and 
of  the  consequent  reign  of  vice  and  crime,  and 
of  the  corruption  and  destitution  which  they  pro- 
duce. The  student  of  Old  Testament  history  has 
little  reason  to  question  the  accuracy  of  this 
description. 

Isaiah,  who  lived  about  the  same  time,  not 
discouraged  with  the  sad  condition,  with  the  vi- 
sion of  the  seer,  apprehended  the  possibility  and 
the  approach  of  better  conditions.  Looking 
down  the  vista  of  the  coming  centuries  he  saw 
a  period  when,  spealdng  in  his  highly  figurative 
language,  "the  wolf  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb, 

123 


124  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the  kid ;  and 
the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the  fatling  to- 
gether; and  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  ox. 
And  the  sucking  child  shall  play  on  the  hole  of 
the  asp,  and  the  weaned  child  shall  put  his 
hand  on  the  adder's  den.  They  shall  not  hurt 
nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain;  for  the 
earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  Jehovah, 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 

These  pictures  serve  several  important  pur- 
poses. They  show  that  vice  and  crime  are  by  no 
means  of  modern  origin.  They  show  that  if 
human  society  is  to  be  rid  of  these  conditions 
of  corruption  and  shame,  and  brought  into  a 
condition  of  general  and  stable  peace,  it  will  be 
accomplished  through  the  universalizing  of  the 
knowledge  of  Jehovah. 

Very  surely  society  has  not  yet,  at  any  point, 
attained  the  high  ideal  set  forth  in  the  language 
of  Isaiah;  but  just  as  surely  it  is  not  in  the 
condition  depicted  by  Hosea ;  there  are  many  en- 
couraging evidences  that  progress  is  making  to- 
ward's  Isaiah's  ideal. 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   VICE  AND   CRIME  125 

How  are  communities,  states,  nations,  the 
race,  to  be  brought  to  this  high  ideal  where 
"nothing  shall  hurt  nor  destroy,"  but  where 
peace,  quiet,  happiness  shall  be  the  common  her- 
itage? 

It  is  a  large  question  and  deserves  a  lai'ger, 
fuller  answer  than  limits  here  will  permit. 

Without  question,  there  is  a  problem  of  vice 
and  crime.    What  is  its  solution? 

The  Century  dictionary  defines  vice  as,  "An 
immoral  or  evil  habit  or  practice;  evil  conduct 
in  which  a  person  indulges ;  a  particular  form  of 
wickedness  or  depravity;  immorality;  especially 
the  indulgence  of  impure  or  degrading  appetites 
or  passions ;  as  the  vice  of  drunkenness." 

Webster  defines  crime  as  a  "violation  of  law, 
divine  or  human." 

According  to  Webster's  definition,  vice  and 
crime  are  almost  if  not  quite  synonymous  terms. 
For  every  vice  is  a  violation  of  divine  law,  and 
is  therefore  a  crime.  Ordinarily,  however,  crime 
is  viewed  as  violation  of  human  law,  while  vice 
is  wrongdoing  that  does  not  rise  to  the  plane  of 


126  CHRIiSTlAMlTY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

violation  of  law.  But  even  under  this  definition 
many  vices  are  also  crimes,  for  many  vices  are 
violations  of  human  law. 

The  problem  of  vice,  that  is,  How  to  diminish 
and  ultimately  abolish  vice?  is  important  for 
several  reasons: 

Vice  tends  to  physical  debilitation. 

It  tends  to  deprave  morals,  both  public  and 
individual. 

It  tends  to  the  promotion  of  crime,  and  thus 
to  the  destruction  of  the  social  fabric. 

The  problem  of  crime  is  equally  important 
for  the  same  reasons,  and  especially  because 
crime  prevents  the  well-being  and  development 
of  society.  The  problem  of  the  elimination  of  the 
two  evils  may  very  well,  therefore,  be  discussed 
as  one. 

Dr.  Washington  Gladden  says  that  the  most 
prevalent  forms  of  sochil  vice  are,  the  social  evil, 
gambling,  and  drunkenness.  Dr.  Carroll  D. 
Wright  says  that  probably  the  most  gigantic 
evils  which  society  has  to  deal  with  are  those 
which  come  from   licentiousness,  or  the  social 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND  CRIME  127 

evil.  Next  to  tliis  he  says  is  intemperance  or 
drunkenness.  Next  to  this  may  be  placed  the 
vice  or  crime  of  gambling-.  These  may  well  be 
said  to  be  mother  vices,  whose  progeny  of  evil  is 
innumerable. 

To  name  and  classify  crimes  would  necessi- 
tate a  study  of  the  criminal  legislation  of  the 
nations.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  in  addition 
to  the  vices  already  named — which,  in  more 
highly  civilized  society  are  rapidly  being  cata- 
logued as  crimes — the  more  flagrant  crimes  are 
theft,  burglary,  fraud,  Sabbath  breaking,  mur- 
der, and  the  various  related  violations  of  human 
rights. 

Are  vice  and  crime  increasing  or  decreasing 
in  civilized  countries? 

Since  vice,  especially  vice  that  has  not  been 
publicly  stamjjed  as  crime,  is  a  personal  matter, 
and  therefore  receives  little  or  no  public  official 
recognition,  it  is  quite  impossible  to  give  an  in- 
telligent answer  in  relation  to  it.  Probably  the 
only  conclusion  that  can  be  reached  is  to  be 
drawn  from  a  comparison  of  conditions  in  civil- 


128  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

ized  with  conditions  in  uncivilized  or  semi-civil- 
ized lands. 

Viewed  at  least  from  the  Christian  stand- 
point, very  certainly  the  Jews  in  Palestine  in 
the  time  of  Hosea  and  Isaiah  represented  the 
highest  type  of  civilization  then  known  to  the 
race.  If  the  picture  drawn  by  Hosea  of  condi- 
tions at  that  time  is  to  be  taken  as  correct,  then 
very  certainly  conditions  as  to  vice  and  crime 
have  greatly  improved  between  that  period  and 
this. 

Speaking  of  the  social  evil,  while  conditions 
in  Christian  nations  are  deplorably  bad,  yet  they 
do  not  approach  conditions  in  pagan  lands, 
where,  as  it  was  in  Rome  and  Greece,  chastity 
was  a  disgrace  rather  than  a  virtue,  and  pros- 
titution was  consecrated  as  a  religious  rite. 
While  we  do  not  approach  conditions  of  this 
character,  yet  we  have  great  reason  to  blush  be- 
cause of  the  prevalence  of  this  awful  blight  upon 
our  civilization.  Mrs.  Ballington  Booth  said  a 
few  years  ago  that  there  were  two  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand   fallen  women  in   the  United 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  VICE  AND  CRIME  129 

States,  and  Dr.  B.  F,  DeCosta  says  that  for  every 
fallen  woman  there  are  five  fallen  men.  Gam- 
bling, too,  in  Christian  lauds  is  a  blasting  mil- 
dew, but  it  seems  to  be  vastly  more  rife  and 
destructive  in  pagan  lands. 

As  to  drinking  and  drunkenness,  statistics 
are  not  very  reassuring.  They  show  that  in  1860 
the  average  consumption  of  alcoholic  liquors  was 
4.17  gallons  per  capita ;  now  it  is  something 
over  twenty-three  gallons.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
however,  that  this  increase  has  been  almost  alto- 
gether in  malt  liquors,  there  having  been  but  lit- 
tle increase  in  the  consumption  of  wine,  and  a 
decrease  per  capita  in  the  consumption  of  dis- 
tilled liquors.  Since  malt  liquors  are  by  far 
less  intoxicating  than  distilled  or  vinous,  the  fig- 
ures do  not  necessarily  argue  an  increase  in 
drunkenness  in  proportion  to  population. 

In  determining  the  increase  of  crime  there  is 
considerable  difficulty,  arising  from  several 
facts : 

1.  The  scarcity  of  full  and  accurate  sta- 
tistics. 


130  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

2.  The  variation  and  complexity  of  laws  in 
relation  to  crime,  some  States  defining  as  crime, 
what  is  not  so  recognized  by  other  States. 

3.  The  general  tendency  to  increase  the  list 
of  crimes  by  defining  as  crimes  acts  that  have 
heretofore  been  classed  as  vices. 

In  view  of  the  last  two  facts  especially,  it  is 
difficult  to  reach  an  intelligent  conclusion  even 
in  the  presence  of  statistics. 

Speaking  as  to  suicide — if  it  may  be  classed 
as  a  crime — Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine,  of  Columbia 
University,  says,  "The  most  obvious  fact  about 
the  suicidal  mania  is  its  extraordinary  increase 
in  nearly  all  civilized  countries — the  rate  of  sui- 
cide having  increased  while  the  general  mortal- 
ity rate  has  gone  down." 

The  same  author  says  that  there  were  in  1904, 
81,772  criminals  incarcerated  in  the  1,333  civil 
prisons  of  the  United  States,  and  "23,034  chil- 
dren and  young  persons,  between  seven  and 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  in  the  ninety-three  re- 
formatory institutions." 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND  CRIME  131 

The  criminals  confined  in  penitentiaries  in 
the  United  States  in  1880  were  35,538,  or  709  to 
each  one  million  of  poimlation;  in  1890  there 
were  45,233,  or  722  to  each  million,  an  increase 
of  thirteen  to  the  million  in  ten  years;  in  1904 
there  were  1,006  to  each  million,  an  increase  of 
284  in  four  years.  This  looks  like  a  very  rapid 
increase.  But  such  a  conclusion  would  not  be 
reliable  without  a  very  careful  study  of  tlie 
crimes  and  of  the  criminals  in  each  penitentiary. 
It  is  probable  that  a  large  share  of  the  increase 
would  be  accounted  for  by  tlie  very  rapid  in- 
crease of  our  population  by  immigration  during 
that  period. 

In  Massachusetts  in  1860  there  were  13.4  sen- 
tences for  crime  for  each  one  thousand  of  pop- 
ulation; in  1880,  it  was  15.2  for  each  one  thou- 
sand. In  the  same  State,  for  crimes  not  includ- 
ing drunkenness,  during  the  period  1860 — 1880, 
the  ratio  fell  from  7.6  to  6.1  to  each  one  thousand 
of  population.  During  the  same  period  the  sen- 
tences for  high  crimes  fell  from  three-tenths  to 
two-tenths  to  one  thousand  population. 


132  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

Anticipating  the  time  when  "there  shall  be 
none  to  hurt  nor  destroy/'  these  statistical  facts 
are  not  very  comforting.  Certainly  if  these  de- 
sirable ends  are  to  be  realized  there  must  be 
something  accomplished  that  will  effect  a  rad- 
ical diminution  of  the  vice  and  crime  that  so 
greatly  afilict  human  society.  For  it  must  be 
recognized  that  how^ever  much  may  be  accom- 
plished in  material  improvement,  nmn  makes 
real  progress  only  as  he  attains  to  conditions 
that  tend  to  the  abolition  of  the  evidences  of  de- 
praved and  selfish  life.  Wealth  accumulated  is 
not,  alone,  evidence  of  progress.  Pleasure  alone 
is  not  evidence  of  real  progress.  Art  alone  is 
not  evidence  of  real  progress.  Only  that  pro- 
motes and  evidences  true  progress  that,  along 
with  these,  brings,  not  to  a  few  but  to  all,  peace, 
quietness,  and  assurance. 

What,  then,  is  the  solution  of  the  problem? 
What  the  remedy  that  will  effect  the  removal  of 
these  evil  and  destructive  conditions? 

Much  may  be  accomplislied  by  careful  and 
thorough  scientific  investigation  of  causes,  and 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND  CRIME  133 

the  application  of  scientific  methods  of  relief. 
There  is  great  need  of  education  upon  the  causes 
and  conditions  that  promote,  and  the  methods 
that  will  tend  to  the  abatement  of  vice  and  crime. 
Every  right-minded  man  and  woman  will  wel- 
come every  possible  contribution  that  science  and 
culture  can  make  to  this  solution. 

There  is  also  need  for  wise  and  effective  legis- 
lation, and  for  vigorous  enforcement  of  law,  with 
a  view  to  the  abolition  of  the  conditions  and  in- 
stitutions promotive  of  vice  and  crime.  If,  as 
Doctor  Devine  says,  a  probation  officer  of  New 
York  told  him,  that  nine-tenths  of  the  misery  in 
that  city  is  due  to  the  social  evil,  then  every  legis- 
lature should  give  its  best  tliought  to  the  enact- 
ment of  laws  for  the  annihilation  of  this  awful 
traffic  in  human  shame,  and  every  executive  of- 
ficer should  make  it  a  chief  task  to  enforce  such 
laws.  If,  as  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  and  of  several  of  the  States  say,  the 
larger  part  of  crime  is  the  direct  or  the  indirect 
fruitage  of  the  liquor  traffic,  then  every  legisla- 
ture, State  and  National,  should  give  its  most 


134  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

careful,  vigorous,  and  immediate  attention  to  the 
enactment  of  laws  looking  to  the  complete  ex- 
tinction of  this  nnjiistifiable  curse  of  the  ages, 
and  every  executive  officer  should  see  that  such 
laws  are  vigorously  and  unrelentingly  enforced. 
And  more,  every  man  that  claims  to  be  a  man, 
should  give  his  best  energy,  his  sacrificial  energy, 
to  seeing  that  legislators  and  executives  are 
elected  that  will  do  these  things. 

But  why  are  these  things  not  done?  There 
are  several  reasons. 

The  real  causes  of  vice  and  crime  escape  de- 
tection by  even  the  most  skillful  type  of  scientific 
investigation;  and  as  well  they  do  not  yield  to 
any  type  of  scientific  method  of  treatment.  Nor 
does  education  reach  the  seat  of  the  difficulty. 
The  tendency  toward  vice  and  crime  is  not  pri- 
marily the  result  of  either  physical  defect,  or  of 
lack  of  mental  culture.  It  lies  deeper;  it  has 
its  basis  in  personal  character,  in  lack  of  moral 
integrity  and  purpose.  It  is  in  moral  defect,  a 
defect  that  neither  science  nor  education   can 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND   CRIME  135 

reach,  and  hence  a  defect  that  neither  can  per- 
manently remedy. 

The  same  is  true  as  to  legislation  and  en- 
forcement. Defective  legislation  is  not  the  re- 
sult of  a  lack  of  knowledge  upon  the  part  of 
the  legislator ;  nor  is  it  because  of  so  great  desire 
to  protect  the  rights  of  the  individual  from  pub- 
lic infringement;  nor  is  defective  enforcement 
because  of  vi^eakness  of  executives,  mental  or 
physical.  In  both  legislators  and  executives  the 
chief  defect  is  moral  defect. 

The  fundamental  condition  of  the  abatement 
of  vice  and  crime  is  the  development  of  a  race 
that  does  not  love  vice  and  does  not  choose  to  be 
criminal.  Hence  the  fundamental  condition  of 
an  effective  solution  of  the  problem  before  us 
is  the  increasingly  effective  universal  elevation 
of  moral  standards  and  of  moral  purposes. 

If  human  history  teaches  anything,  it  teaches 
that  social  progress  to  be  permanent  and  effect- 
ive to  the  removal  of  the  evils  of  society,  must 
7'est  upon  a  moral  basis,  the  true  moral  basis. 

Where,  then,  is  the  true  moral  basis? 


136  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

Measured  by  the  highest  possible  standards 
of  simplicity,  equity,  motive,  and  universality,  it 
must  be  clear  to  every  one  that  will  candidly 
consider,  that  it  is  found  in  the  Christian  system, 
as  evidenced  by  the  fundamental  social  princi- 
ples of  that  system,  divine  Fatherhood,  human 
brotherhood,  equality,  co-operation,  love. 

This  is  not  to  speak  against  the  scientific 
method ;  it  is  only  to  say  that  while  the  scientific 
method  is  efficient,  aside  from  Christianity  it  is 
not  sufficient.  Neither  is  it  to  speak  against  any- 
thing that  the  reliable  psychologist  may  say  as 
to  change  of  temperamental  or  physical  condi- 
tions that  may  conduce  to  vicious  and  criminal 
conduct.  It  is  simply  to  recognize  that  at  the 
last  analysis  vice  and  crime  are  expressions  of 
moral  defect,  and  must  have  moral  remedy.  It 
is  to  say  that  the  motive  and  the  energy  neces- 
sary to  real  improvement  in  these  relations  must 
be  more  than  science  or  education  can  supply. 
There  must  be  born  in  the  individual  conscious 
conviction  of  moral  obligation,  and  fixed  purpose 
to  meet  such  obligation,  the  source  and  spring  of 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND  CRIME  137 

which  is  God  himself,  all  of  which  is  set  forth 
and  outlined  in  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom. 

The  real,  permanent,  and  world-wide  solution 
of  the  problem  of  vice  and  crime  is  to  be  reached, 
therefore,  only  through  the  effective  promulga- 
tion and  individual  application  of  this  gospel. 
"Ye  must  be  born  again"  expresses  a  social  need 
as  real  and  as  universal  as  is  the  religous  need  it 
expresses;  born  to  a  higher  conception  of  rela- 
tion and  obligation  here,  and  to  a  keener  convic- 
tion of  duty  now. 

This  being  true,  there  rests  upon  the  church 
of  Jesus  Christ  universal,  the  visible  representa- 
tive of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  agency  for  the 
promulgation  and  exemplification  of  the  gos- 
pel, the  duty,  and  to  it  is  given  the  privilege,  of 
making  this  application  and  effecting  this  solu- 
tion, the  only  solution  that  will  rid  the  race  of 
vice  and  its  shame,  of  crime  and  its  devastation. 

By  this  is  not  meant  that  the  church  shall 
abate  in  the  least  her  effort  at  evangelization. 
She  must  greatly  increase  it,  for  this  is  itself  a 
primary  element  in  applying  the  gospel. 


138  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

But  along  with  this  the  church  must,  with  a 
view  to  promoting  the  social  welfare,  greatly 
increase  her  effort  for  the  practical  and  effective 
application  of  the  gospel  to  the  great  social  prob- 
lems. Very  surely  the  church  has  never  yet 
measured  her  strength  in  meeting  this  task. 

But  to  what  particular  end  shall  the  church 
exert  her  energies  toward  the  application  of  the 
gospel  for  the  remedying  of  these  evils? 

First,  to  the  practice  of  exemplification  of 
true  social  ideals  as  set  forth  in  the  Word  of  God. 
The  race  will  never  be  convinced  of  the  value  of 
the  social  principles  taught  in  the  Word  of  (xod 
by  the  church  telling  others  how  they  should  live, 
but  only  by  the  church  lierself  exemplifying 
those  ideals.  Tliis  is  as  true  in  relation  to  vice 
and  crime  as  it  is  true  in  relation  to  commerce, 
industry,  or  politics.    It  is  true  in  every  relation. 

Second,  the  church  must  by  all  possible  and 
worthy  methods  seek  directly  the  diminution  of 
vice  and  crime  with  a  view  to  their  ultimate  ex- 
tinction. In  her  efforts  to  do  this  she  must  seek 
as  rapidly  as  possible  the  removal  of  whatever 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND   CRIME  139 

fosters  or  promotes  them  or  either  of  them. 
She  must  also  seek  to  develop  in  the  individual 
and  in  society  such  a  type  of  character  as  will 
of  its  own  choice  disapprove  and  turn  away  from 
vice  and  crime.  These  forms  of  evil  flourish  be- 
cause so  large  a  part  of  society  approve  of  them 
as  means  of  gratifying  personal  passion  and  de- 
sire. Few  persons  are  vicious  or  criminal  for 
the  mere  sake  of  being  such ;  but  thousands  are 
so  because  they  choose  to  find  in  this  way  the 
gratification  of  selfish  passion  or  appetite.  This 
selfish  attitude  can  be  changed  not  by  science,  not 
by  education,  but  only  by  the  development  of  a 
type  of  character  from  which  selfishness  is  elim- 
inated. 

It  is  argued  by  some  that  the  proposition  to 
remove  inducements  to  vice  coupled  with  the 
proposition  to  develop  character  are  largely  con- 
tradictory. They  hold  that  to  remove  temptation 
is  to  remove  a  condition  essential  to  the  devel- 
opment of  character.  To  strengthen  their  argu- 
ment they  refer  to  the  Bible  story  of  the  for- 
bidden fruit  in  Eden.     But  it  must  be  remem- 


140  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

bered  tliat  before  tlie  storj  of  the  forbidden 
fruit  is  the  first  commission  given  to  man,  "Be 
fruitful  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth, 
and  subdue  it,  and  Imve  dominion  .  .  .  over 
everything  that  moveth  on  the  earth."  If  this 
positive,  constructive  commission  had  been 
obeyed,  we  might  not  liave  had  the  sad  story  of 
the  fall.  The  race  has  made  progress  as  it  has 
sought  the  application  of  means  and  conditions 
that  positively  promote  progress,  and  not  as  it 
has  withstood  temptations  to  do  the  wrong.  As 
to  the  development  of  character,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  character  is  developed,  not  ac- 
cording to  the  degree  that  men  refrain  from  do- 
ing the  wrong,  but  according  to  the  degree  to 
which  they  devote  themselves  to  doing  the  right 
and  the  good.  Contributory  to  this  there  has 
come  development  to  the  individual  and  to  so- 
ciety as  men  have  put  away  and  kept  away  what- 
ever solicits  to  vice  and  crime. 

How,  then,  shall  the  church  exert  its  efforts 
for  the  practical  application  of  the  gospel  to  ef- 
fect the  extinction  of  vice  and  crime? 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  VICE  AND  CRIME  141 

The  answer  is  twofold : 

1.  By  so  relating  itself  to  the  state,  the  na- 
tion, as  to  create  a  legal  condition  such  as  will 
to  the  largest  possible  degree  eradicate  these 
evils. 

God  has  established  two  public  institutions 
for  the  saving  and  blessing  of  the  race — the 
Church  and  the  State.  And  the  church  will  only 
do  its  duty  before  God  and  before  the  state  when 
in  the  person  of  its  individual  membership,  at 
the  ballot-box  and  at  every  other  point  of  con- 
tact, it  does  its  best  to  create  a  government  that 
v^•ill  "make  it  as  easy  as  possible  to  do  right  and 
as  hard  as  possible  to  do  wrong.-'  In  seeking 
to  do  this  the  church,  acting  through  the  free 
choice  of  its  individual  membership,  can  seek  to 
accomplish  two  things: 

First,  to  bring  vice  and  crime  to  exposure, 
and  the  vicious  and  criminal  to  restraint  and 
correction. 

Nothing  from  without  acts  so  effectively  to 
eliminate  vice  as  exposure  to  the  light,  provided 
such  exposure  is  not  so  made  as  to  popularize 


142  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

tJie  vice.  Nothing  from  without  operates  so  ef- 
fectively to  check  crime  as  the  effective  restraint 
and  proper  training  of  the  criminal.  It  is  an 
open  question  whether  j)unishment  of  the  crim- 
inal operates  to  eliminate  crime,  or  even  dimin- 
ish it.  Modern  experiments  in  elevating  re- 
straint, instruction,  training,  and  probation 
seem  to  be  yielding  better  fruitage. 

A  few  years  ago  in  one  of  our  western  cities, 
when  mayor  and  policemen  refused  to  act  to  rid 
the  city  of  houses  of  shame,  a  publisher  of  the 
city  exhibited  in  his  dail}'^,  side  by  side,  the  pic- 
ture of  every  such  house  and  the  photographs  of 
the  supposedly  reputable  business  men  who 
rented  them  for  immoral  purposes.  The  effect 
for  good  was  very  marked.  Sucli  exposure,  not 
of  vice  itself,  but  of  the  men  who  stand  as  its 
sponsors,  will  do  much  toward  its  elimination. 

Second,  the  Church  must  awake  fully  to  tlie 
fact  that  the  State  is  established  of  God  to  minis- 
ter to  the  well-being  of  society,  and  that  it  is  a 
most  important  part  of  the  duty  of  the  Church, 
through  its  individual  membership,  to  assist  in 


THE  PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND   CRIME  143 

rendering  the  State  efficient  to  the  largest  pos- 
sible degree  to  the  fulfilling  of  its  mission. 

2.  The  second  element  in  the  answer  to  the 
question,  "How  shall  the  Chnrch  exert  itself?" 
is — 

It  must  bend  its  energies,  individual  and  or- 
ganic, to  the  securing  and  developing  and  making 
universal  of  such  a  type  of  manhood  and  woman- 
hood as  will  of  its  own  choice  turn  away  from 
Adce  and  crime.  It  must  give  larger  attention 
to  the  practical  problem  of  saving  men. 

Yes,  the  practical  problem.  Jesus  Christ  was 
no  mere  theorist.  He  was  eminently  practical. 
"He  went  about  doing  good."  He  "came  to  seek 
and  to  save  the  lost."  To  save  them,  not  simply 
to  theoretical  righteousness,  but  to  righteousness 
that  means  practical  rightness.  Here  is  the 
great  need,  and  it  is  in  an  important  sense  the 
great  task  of  the  Church.  The  need  of  society  is, 
vastly  more  universally  even  in  Christian  lands, 
a  type  of  manhood  and  womanhood  that  shuns 
vice  and  crime,  not  for  fear  of  exposure,  nor  for 
fear  of  punishment,  nor  simply  because  they  are 


144  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

"vipers  of  such  frightful  mien,"  but  because  they 
love  God,  love  truth,  love  virtue. 

The  man  who  abstains  from  vice,  or  from  pro- 
moting vice,  for  fear  of  exposure,  is  vicious  still, 
and  only  waits  opportunity  under  sufficient 
cover ;  the  man  who  turns  from  crime  for  f eai'  of 
punishment  is  a  criminal  still,  and  only  awaits 
opportunity  sufficiently  shielded  from  the  pub- 
lic officer.  But  he  who  turns  from  vice  because 
he  loves  virtue,  who  abstains  from  crime  because 
he  is  so  busy  rendering  his  fellow-man  service 
born  of  love,  is  developing  or  possessed  of  a  char- 
acter that  will  be  a  buttress  to  human  society, 
and  that  will  bear  the  test  of  the  vision  of  God 
and  of  the  eternities. 

The  gospel  remedy  for  vice  and  crime  is  the 
regeneration  of  life  and  the  invigoration,  inspira- 
tion of  manhood,  by  the  Spirit  and  life  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Here  is  the  fruitful  field  of  activity  for 
the  Ghurcli,  to  lead  boys  and  men,  girls  and  wo- 
men to  such  an  acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
will  secure  to  them  this  positive  regenerative  life, 
to  be  followed  by  such  courses  of  instruction, 


THE   PROBLEM   OF  VICE  AND   CRIME  145 

training,  and  service  as  will  make  every  member 
actively  contributory  to  the  highest  human  well- 
being.  As  this  is  done,  the  sad  picture  drawn  by 
Hosea  will  fade  awa}'  and  be  displaced  by  that 
presented  by  Isaiah,  when  "they  shall  not  hurt 
nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain;  for  the 
earth  shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  Jehovah, 
as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 


VIII. 
SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES  APPLIED 


VIII. 

SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  APPLIED 

There  are  social  f>roblems  of  great  inagnitucle 
awaiting  solution.  This  is  by  no  means  saying 
that  no  progress  has  been  made  toward  their 
solution.  Great  progress  has  been  made.  But 
there  is  yet  a  many-voiced  demand  for  the  better 
application  of  the  gospel  to  the  relief  of  unfav- 
orable conditions  that  yet  prevail ;  and  this  in 
order  that  the  indivdiual  and  society  at  large 
may  enjoy  the  better  conditions  that  are  possi- 
ble. And  as  well,  that  the  value  and  the  power 
of  the  gospel  may  be  more  fully  demonstrated. 

How,  then,  shall  the  social  principles  of 
Christianity,  those  principles  upon  the  applica- 
tion of  which  depends  the  remedy  of  unfavorable 
conditions,  how  shall  they  be  practically  applied? 
applied  so  as  to  reach  the  desired  results? 

Preliminary  to  answering  this  question  it 
is  necessary  to  answer  another  question :  that 
question,  "Why  is  it  so?"     Stated  more  elab- 

149     - 


150  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

orately  this  one  single  question  becomes  several 
questions : 

What  is  the  cause  of  the  conditions  of  which 
complaint  is  made? 

Why  exist  the  unbalanced  conditions  of  so- 
ciety? 

Why  is  it  that  some  are  criminal  and  some 
are  law-abiding? 

Why  is  it  that  some  are  harassed  by  poverty, 
while  others  are  loaded  down  with  riches? 

Why  is  it  that  some  are  bound  with  chains  of 
slavery,  while  others  are  free  to  fasten  upon  the 
chains  of  bondage? 

Why  is  it  that  such  conditions  exist? 

With  beings  such  as  man,  each  possessed  of 
the  ability  to  contribute  to  the  otlier's  good,  with 
nature  upon  every  hand  abundant  if  not  even 
profligate  with  her  store  of  plenty,  why  do  these 
unfavorable  conditions  exist? 

The  question  "Why?"  is  important,  not  sim- 
ply from  the  side  of  inquisitive  curiosity,  but  it 
is  important  for  the  reason  that  its  answer  will 
contribute,  indeed  is  necessary,  to  understand- 


SOCIAL  PEINCIPLES  APPLIED  151 

ing  how  to  make  the  application  of  those  prin- 
ciples, the  proper  application  of  which  will  re- 
lieve the  difficulty. 

There  are  three,  and  only  three  possible 
causes  of  these  conditions. 

They  are  caused  by  man's  environment — or 

They  are  caused  by  man  himself — or 

They  are  the  product  of  the  two  combined. 

Since  these  exhaust  the  entire  realm  of  pos- 
sible causes,  the  real  cause  must  be  found  within 
them  somewhere. 

Do  they  originate  in  man's  environment?  By 
environment  is  meant  here  all  that  lies  outside 
of  man,  speaking  of  him  both  individually  and 
as  a  race. 

There  are  certain  calamities  which  are  un- 
caused by  man,  themselves  the  result  of  his  en- 
vironment, as  the  storm  at  sea,  death  by  accident, 
the  famine  that  results  from  natural  causes. 

But  these  are  not  the  conditions  that  to-day 
are  creating  discontent.  The  conditions  of  which 
complaint  is  made  are  those  in  which  in  somo 


152  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

way  and  to  some  degi'ee  human  intent  and  pur- 
pose figures  and  has  a  place.  Indeed  it  is  only 
of  unfavorable  social  conditions  that  have  their 
basis  in  human  intent  that  men  specially  com- 
plain. Conditions,  however  severe  they  may  be, 
that  have  their  origin  in  forces  or  conditions  be- 
yond human  control,  while  they  bring  hardship, 
do  not  raise  the  complaint  of  bitter  protest. 

General  William  Booth,  of  the  Salvation 
Army,  said,  "Hundreds  of  British  working  men, 
able-bodied,  skilled  artisans,  willing  and  anxious 
to  work,  are  with  their  families  literally  starving 
and  perishing  from  lack  of  food,  fuel,  and  cloth- 
ing." 

If  this  were  the  result  of  conditions  entirely 
beyond  human  control,  if  it  were  the  result  of 
environment  solely,  then  though  the  distress  and 
suffering  would  be  no  less,  there  could  be  no 
just  ground  of  complaint  against  fellow-man. 
In  other  words,  we  complain,  and  very  justly, 
against  conditions  that  can  be  traced  to  human 
purpose  and  intent. 


SOCIAL   PKINCIl'LES   APPLIED  153 

But  this  reduces  us  to  where  we  charge  all 
these  unfavorable  social  conditions  to  the  pur- 
pose and  intent  of  man.  But  some  tell  us  we 
cannot  justly  charge  them  to  men  individually, 
but  to  institutions,  to  coiiditioiis,  to  systems 
which  men  impose. 

Tliis  may  for  the  moment  be  admitted.  For 
it  surely  is  true  that  as  seen  to-day,  unfavorable 
social  conditions,  whether  in  the  realm  of  indus- 
try, in  the  realm  of  commerce,  in  the  realm  of 
crime,  or  in  the  realm  more  specifically  social, 
are  to  a  large  degree  the  result  of  conditions  of 
organization  and  operation  that  are  in  a  sense 
super-imposed  by  the  more  or  less  closely  associ- 
ated operation  of  bodies  or  classes  of  men. 

But  this  is  by  no  means  wholly  so.  Men 
complain  of  conditions  and  systems,  when  they 
themselves  bring  upon  themselves  self-imposed 
conditions  that  render  their  own  lives  a  burden 
and  a  disappointment.  A  gentleman,  a  laboring 
man,  said,  speaking  of  the  large  number  of  un- 
married men  and  women,  that  if  men  could  earn 
enough  to  care  for  wife  and  family  comfortably, 


154  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

nine  would  marry  and  rear  families  where  now- 
one  does  so.  He  was  answered  that  his  state- 
ment to  be  any  way  near  the  truth  must  contain 
another  proviso ;  that  is,  that,  not  only  if  men  had 
the  opportunity  to  earn  enoug:h  that  they  could 
support  a  wife  and  family,  but  the  further  pro 
viso  that,  havino-  such  opportunity  they  would 
use  the  opportunity  and  use  the  money  they  earn 
to  meet  their  real  needs. 

There  are  scores  of  men  earning  sufficient  to 
care  for  families,  but  who  find  themselves  in 
financial  straits  because  so  large  a  portion  of 
what  they  earn  is  applied  to  other  than  necessary 
purposes.  This  is  no  more  true  of  laboring  men 
than  of  other  men,  but  the  laboring  man  is  so 
situated  that  he  experiences  the  pinch  more  than 
some  whose  income  is  large.  But  in  the  majority 
of  cases  of  that  character  the  condition  would 
not  be  changed  materially,  no  matter  how  much 
the  income  were  increased. 

But  conceding  all  that  may  be  said  as  to  un- 
favorable conditions  being  the  result  of  institu- 
tions and  systems;  conceding  all  that  the  most 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   APPLIED  155 

radical  may  claim,  in  what  sense  does  this  con- 
cession relieve  the  situation? 

For  when  properly  analyzed,  it  is  found  that 
these  institutions,  these  systems,  can,  in  the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  be  no  more  nor  less  than 
the  expression  of  the  purposes  of  men  acting  in- 
dividually or  collectively.  Governmental  sys- 
tems, whether  o^ood  or  bad,  are  the  expression  of 
the  purpose  of  men.  Commercial  systems,  in- 
dustrial systems,  whether  good  or  bad,  are  the 
expression  of  the  purposes  and  choices  of  men. 
The  more  immediate  and  at  the  same  time  more 
general  social  conditions  are  the  same. 

The  Bible  is  the  setting  forth  of  the  will  of 
God,  and  of  the  plan  of  human  salvation.  But  the 
organized  church,  the  visible  church,  as  we  see 
it  and  know  it  in  its  various  forms  and  organ- 
izations, is  the  expression  of  varying  interpreta- 
tions of  the  Word  of  God  by  men.  Hence  it 
may  be  said  of  institutions  and  systems,  from 
the  church  out  through  the  many  and  varying 
forms  of  organized  activity,  that  they  are  the  ex- 
pressions of  the  understanding  and  of  the  choices 


156  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

and  purposes  of  men.  The}-  are  what  men  have 
made  them. 

An  immediate,  logical,  and  necessary  infer- 
ence from  tliis  fact  is  that  the  character  of  in- 
stitutions and  systems,  and  especially  the  oper- 
ation and  execution  of  institutions  and  systems 
will  be  determined  by  the  character  of  the  men 
who  organize  and  execute  them.  If  this  be  true, 
then  it  follows  that  if  institutions  and  systems 
are  bad,  it  is  because  bad  men  organize  and 
operate  them.  Then  it  follows  that  if  institu- 
tions are  to  be  corrected  and  made  better,  the 
only  way  to  accomplish  it  is  to  have  the  men 
made  better  who  operate  them. 

We  speak  of  the  evils  of  the  child-labor  sys- 
tem, a  system  that  is  visiting  widespread  de- 
struction upon  childhood,  and  ultimately  upon 
manhood  and  womanhood;  and  we  lay  the  re- 
sponsibility for  this  iniquity  upon  the  men  who 
operate  the  mines  and  factories  where  the  in- 
iquity is  practiced.  How,  then,  can  a  change  for 
the  better  be  effected  ?  Only  by  the  men  who  are 
concerned,  it  is  answered.    But  it  must  be  clear 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES   APPLIED  157 

that  before  a  change  for  the  better  will  be  made 
hy  them,  so  far  as  their  choices  are  concerned, 
there  must  be  a  change  made  in  them. 

But  it  may  be  answered,  "No;  the  fault  is 
with  the  system,  and  we  will  change  it  by  legal 
enactment."  Let  this,  too,  be  conceded.  But 
conceding  this  is  to  revoke  the  former  concession, 
and  to  say  that  the  men  who  control  and  operate 
these  factories  do  not  bear  the  entire  responsi- 
bility for  the  iniquities  practiced.  For  accord- 
ing to  this  latter  concession,  the  body  politic,  the 
citizenship  at  large  who  tolerates  such  a  system, 
have  the  right  and  the  power  to  change  these 
conditions  and  hence  such  citizenship  is  itself 
responsible  for  the  conditions. 

This  being  true,  it  does  not,  however,  effect 
the  fundamental  requirement  as  to  improved 
conditions.  It  only  distributes  the  responsibility 
over  a  large  circle,  and  leaves  it  rest,  not  upon 
the  system  as  an  expressed  or  accepted  method 
of  operating,  nor  upon  the  machinery  of  the  sys- 
tem, but  upon  the  individual  citizens  of  the 
State  or  Nation.    Every  citizen  is,  in  a  measure, 


158  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

responsible  for  every  hour  of  toil  inhumanly  im- 
posed upon  a  child  in  State  or  Nation.  Every 
citizen  is  responsible  in  a  measure  for  every  glass 
of  liquor  sold  to  make  men  drunken.  Every  cit- 
izen must  bear  his  share  of  the  responsibility  for 
every  murder,  and  for  every  assault  committed 
in  his  State  or  Nation  under  the  influence  of 
liquor  authorized  to  be  sold  by  State  or  Nation. 
The  effort  to  lay  tlie  responsibility  for  unfavor- 
able conditions  upon  laws,  and  institutions,  and 
system,  is  a.  subterfuge  and  a  snare. 

If  all  this  be  true,  then  how  change  condi- 
tions? 

It  may  be  answered,  "By  the  enactment  and 
enforcement  of  better  laws."  But  how  can  this 
be  accomplished?  Only  by  getting  better  men, 
and  then  better  legislation.  This  leads  one  step 
further  in  our  inquirj-. 

What  is  it  that  leads  men  who  organize  and 
operate  great  commercial  and  industrial  enter- 
prises to  impose  the  hardships  under  which  so 
large  a  portion  of  society  suffer?  What  is  it 
upon  the  part  of  the  voting  citizenship  of  a  city, 


SOCIAL  PRINCIPLES  APPLIED  159 

state,  or  nation  tliat  leads  them  to  tolerate  and 
even  authorize  by  legal  enactment,  conditions 
that  result  in  the  imposition  of  the  hardships  un- 
der which  so  many  suffer? 

There  can  be  but  two  answers,  either  ignoi> 
ance,  a  lack  of  knowledge  or  foresight ;  or,  a  dis- 
regard of  the  known  rights  of  fellow-men.  These 
may  act  separately  or  together. 

A  large  amount  of  social  hardship  and  suffer- 
ing has  resulted  from  ignorance,  a  lack  of  knowl- 
edge or  foresight,  A  clear  illustration  is  the 
action  of  the  framers  of  a  former  constitution  of 
the  State  of  Ohio.  In  that  document  was  placed 
a  statement  to  the  effect  that  the  sale  of  intox- 
icating liquor  as  a  beverage  should  never  be  li- 
censed in  that  State.  The  intention  was  to  pro- 
hibit the  sale  of  intoxicants  for  beverage  pur- 
poses in  the  State.  But  the  failure  upon  the 
part  of  framers  of  the  constitution  to  recognize 
that  the  term  "license"  might  be  given  a  very 
strict  interpretation,  left  the  way  open  for  the 
later  Dow  tax  system,  and  the  State  was  flooded 
with  drink,  and  cursed  with  its  results. 


160  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

The  fact  of  ignorance  necessitates  the  work 
of  education,  and  to  the  promotion  of  this  work 
the  church  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  exponent  of  the 
Christian  system,  must  devote  its  energies  most 
heartily. 

But  it  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  conclude 
that  all  the  evil,  or  that  the  greater  part  of  social 
evils  are  the  result  of  ignorance.  It  is  not  be- 
cause of  ignorance  that  laborers  are  deprived  of 
their  just  wages.  It  is  not  because  of  ignorance 
that  great  systems  are  organized  which  force  the 
flow  of  wealth  to  a  few  centers.  It  is  not  ignor- 
ance that  fastens  upon  the  nation  the  drink  traf- 
fic, the  cause  of  more  social  suffering  than  all 
the  other  causes  combined. 

However  much  of  evil  ignorance  may  bring; 
however  much  it  may  unite  with  selfishness  to 
increase  the  burdens  of  society,  the  one  funda- 
mental cause  of  all  social  hardship  is  selfish  dis- 
regard of  the  rights  of  fellow-men.  This  is  the 
one  seed  that,  more  than  all  else,  produces  the 
evil  fruits  that  curse  society.  This  is  the  deadly 
upas  tree  that  has  poisoned  the  atmosphere  of 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  APPLIED  161 

the  business,  the  industrial,  the  political,  the  en- 
tire social  world,  until  upon  every  hand  are  seen 
the  withered  skeletons  of  hopeless,  worn-out,  in- 
different, indolent,  vicious,  and  criminal  thou- 
sands. Nor  does  this  tree  distill  its  poison  only 
from  factories,  and  mines,  and  at  the  will  of 
great  commercial  enterprises;  it  grows  in  the 
homes  of  laboring  men  as  well;  the  evidences  of 
its  effects  are  to  be  seen  everywhere. 

What,  then,  is  the  remedy,  the  ultimate,  the 
real  remedy? 

Good  legislation  is  helpful.  Effective  en- 
forcement gives  to  legislation  its  supreme  value. 
But  the  final  remedy  is  in  setting  right  the  in- 
dividual. 

The  curse  of  human  society,  the  curse  of  the 
social  world  is  bad  men.  Not  that  all  men  are 
bad,  by  any  means.  Not  that  all  men  conspire  to 
bring  outrage,  oppression,  crime,  starvation,  and 
death.  But  still  the  curse  of  the  social  world  is 
bad  men.  Bad  men  who  seek  to  dominate  the 
commercial  world.  Bad  men  who  would  reduce 
to  a  condition  little  better  than  slavery  those 


162  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

who  are  in  their  employ.  Bad  men  who  would 
exploit  the  childhood  of  the  nation  to  increase 
the  flow  of  gold  to  their  own  coffers.  Bad  men 
who  would  submerge  the  State  and  Nation  in 
crime  and  debaucherj^  if  only  their  wealth  might 
be  increased.  Bad  men  as  well  in  the  great  body 
of  laboring  men.  Bad  men  and  bad  women  who 
by  profligacy-  in  the  saloon  and  in  the  house  of 
shame,  place  upon  children  and  wives  the  bur- 
dens that  wear  their  lives  out  with  toil  and  send 
them  to  premature  graves,  bearing  the  load  of 
sorrow  imposed  by  wicked  husbands  and  fathers. 
Bad  men  at  the  ballot  box,  who  for  a  drink  of 
whiskey,  or  a  cheap  cigar,  will  barter  away  their 
liberties  and  their  rights.  Bad  systems?  Yes, 
bad  s^'stems,  but  bad  because  the  men  behind 
them  are  bad ;  to  be  corrected  onlj^  as  men  them- 
selves are  brought  to  a  due  appreciation  of  the 
privileges,  the  rights,  and  the  duties  of  true  man- 
hood. 

This,  then,  leads  to  the  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion. How  apply  the  social  principles  of  Christi- 
anity?   That  is,  conceding  that  social  conditions 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  APPLIED  163 


are  not  what  the}'  should  be,  and  conceding  that 
Christianity  in  its  publication  of  the  equality  of 
all  men  in  natural  rights,  and  its  imposing  the 
obligation  of  unselfish,  mutual  co-operation  for 
the  common  weal  is  right,  conceding  that  in  this 
is  presented  in  principle  the  remedy  for  these 
conditions,  how  shall  these  principles  be  applied 
so  as  to  bring  into  effective  realization  the  con- 
dition that  the  application  of  these  principles 
will  produce? 

It  may  be  answered,  By  securing  such  legis- 
lation as  will  require  the  application  of  these 
principles,  and  by  the  effective  enforcement  of 
such  legislation.  But  it  must  be  clear  to  every 
thoughtful  mind  that  sucli  legislation  and  such 
enforcement  are  possible  only  when  there  is  in 
at  least  a  considerable  majority  of  the  individual 
units  of  society  a  liigh  conscientious  regard  for 
human  rights  and  human  well-being. 

The  sum  of  this  is,  that  the  fundamental  con- 
dition of  true  social  betterment  is,  the  instruc- 
tion and  awakening  of  individual  minds  and 
consciences  to  high  moral  ideals  and  obligations 


164  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

ill  sufficient  numbers  to  accomplisli  these  ends. 
In  otlier  words,  the  social  principles  of  Christi- 
anity, the  Golden  Rule  of  human  equality,  of  un- 
selfish co-operation,  will  be  applied  effectively 
to  the  remedying  of  bad  social  conditions, 
whether  in  commerce,  in  industry,  in  politics, 
in  church,  or  in  private  life,  only  as  these  prin- 
ciples are  first  applied  to  the  instruction  and 
awakening  of  individual  men  and  women  so  as 
to  secure,  upon  their  part,  the  application  of 
these  principles  in  all  their  multifarious  rela- 
tions in  human  society. 

Nor  must  this  be  simply  an  intellectual  as?- 
sent  to  the  necessity  of  better  conditions,  and  to 
the  value  of  these  principles;  but  it  must  be  a 
change  of  attitude,  a  change  of  life,  a  change  that 
roots  out  of  employers  and  employes  selfish  am- 
bition and  motives  of  action,  and  puts  in  their 
place  the  love  of  fellow-man  as  a  brother.  Not 
simply  of  fellow-man  who  stands  upon  an  equal- 
ity in  business  relations,  or  in  so-called  social 
relations,  but  a  change  that  will  cause  employer 
to  love  employe,  and  employe  to  love  employer 


SOCIAL   PRINCIPLES  APPLIED  165 

as  brothers.  A  change  that  will  cause  the  voter 
at  the  ballot  box  to  see  in  his  ballot  his  one 
supreme  niedinm  of  expressing  his  love  for  so- 
ciety at  large,  and  not  a  means  for  the  advance- 
ment of  personal  or  partisan  political  prefer- 
ence. Less  tlian  this  will  always  leave  legisla- 
tion a  tangle,  industries  an  agency  of  exploit, 
and  immediate  social  institutions  in  the  hands  of 
harpies  that  prey  upon  the  body  of  a  suffering 
citizenship. 

In  this  way,  and  in  this  way  alone,  can  soci- 
ety be  brought  to  where  justice  and  equity  shall 
approach  universality  of  application,  and  where 
mercy  shall  be  the  crowning  attribute  of  society 
as  it  is  of  Jehovah  himself.  There  is  a  possibility 
of  a  really  effective  application  of  the  elevating 
social  principles  set  forth  in  the  Christian  sys- 
tem, only  as  there  is  first  a  wide-spread  and  con- 
scientious application  of  those  principles  in  in- 
dividual life  and  conduct. 

This  being  true,  the  first  and  most  important 
task  in  behalf  of  the  real  well-being  of  Imnian 
society  is  the  effective  promulgation  of  the  Chris- 


166  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

tian  system;  such  promulgation  as  shall  be  ef- 
fective to  the  transformation  of  human  charac- 
ter, life,  and  conduct,  by  bringing  men  and 
women  individually  under  the  influence  of  the 
spirit  and  life  of  Jesus  Christ, 

And  this  is  but  to  say  that  socially  as  well  as 
religiously  Jesus  Christ  is  the  hope  of  the  world. 
True  and  permanent  social  regeneration  is  a  pos- 
sibility only  as  there  is  first  true  and  permanent 
religous  regeneration.  "Ye  must  be  born  again" 
is  the  fundamental  social  truth  as  really  as  it  is 
the  fundamental  religious  truth. 


IX. 

THE  CHUKCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL 


IX. 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL 

That  there  is  a  social  as  well  as  a  religious  prob- 
lem, no  student  of  history  or  of  current  life  can 
deny. 

That  the  social  problem  is  as  old  as  the  reli- 
gious problem  is  equally  evident. 

That  the  Christian  system  recognizes  both  of 
these  problems,  and  proposes  their  solution,  must 
appear  to  every  candid  student  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures;  for  nowhere  do  we  find  stated  more 
clearly  the  relation  of  man  to  his  fellow-man, 
and  the  obligations  that  gTow  out  of  that  rela- 
tion. 

That  the  Christian  system  recognizes  these 
problems,  and  their  effective  solution,  as  most 
intimately  related,  is  shown  by  the  two  great 
commandments,  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God,"  and,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself." 

Since  there  is  a  social  problem;  since  the 
Christian  system  recognizes  it  and  proposes  its 

169 


170  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

solution ;  since  the  duties  of  man  to  man  are,  by 
the  Christian  system,  declared  so  imperative  that 
they  are  put  second  only  to  the  duties  that  man 
owes  to  God;  since  the  church  is  the  authorized 
exponent  and  agent  of  the  Christian  system,  then 
the  solving  of  the  social  problem  must  be  a  part 
of  the  mission  and  duty  of  the  church  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Its  duty  in  this  relation  is  to  assist  in 
promulgating  and  applying  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  in  both  its  divine  and  its  human  rela- 
tions, to  the  promoting  of  man's  well-being,  em- 
bracing his  well-being  socially  as  well  as  reli- 
giously. 

That  the  gospel  has  not  yet  been  thus  fully 
applied,  must  be  clear  to  ever^^  one.  For,  while 
we  might  find  some  difficulty  in  deciding  in  ad- 
vance just  what  will  be  the  condition  when  it  Is 
effectively  applied,  yet  no  one  who  believes  in 
the  equality  of  all  men  as  to  natural  rights,  and 
the  duty  of  unselfish,  co-operative  service  in  be- 
half of  fellow-men,  both  of  which  are  clearly 
embraced  in  the  Golden  Rule;  no  one  who  be- 
lieves in   these  as  principles   of  the  Christian 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL         171 

teaching,  can  for  a  moment  believe  that  to-day 
the  conditions  which  the  application  of  these 
principles  will  produce  has  been  attained. 

When  in  the  anthracite  coal  mines  of  Penn- 
sylvania thousands  of  boys  under  fourteen  years 
of  age  are  employ  ed  contrar}-  to  the  laws  of  the 
State,  and  to  the  positive  detriment  of  these  chil- 
dren ;  where  for  nine  hours  a  day  these  little  fel- 
lows toil  in  the  breakers,  bending  over  streams 
of  coal  which  pour  out  clouds  of  dust  so  thick 
that  the  light  cannot  penetrate  them ;  when  in  the 
factories  of  the  South  children  of  six  and  seven 
years  are  at  work  for  twelve  and  thirteen  hours 
a  day,  their  fingers  mangled  by  machinery,  their 
bodies  limp  with  exhaustion ;  when  in  New  Eng- 
land, the  birthplace  of  American  liberty,  hun- 
dreds of  children  under  thirteen  years  of  age 
toil  at  the  mills,  and  men  and  women  work  un- 
der such  a  strain  that  they  are  worn  out  at  forty- 
five  years  of  age,  and  ruthlessly  thrown  aside  to 
give  place  to  others;  when  among  the  cotton 
mills  of  the  South  troops  of  children  twelve  years 
of  age  and  under  are  dragged  out  of  bed,  to 


172  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

eat  their  meager  breakfast,  and  rushed  off.  to  the  * 
mills  with  sleepy  eyes  to  toil  amid  the  hum  and 
roar  of  machinery  for  eleven  horns  a  day;  when 
there  are  among  us  thousands  of  weary  working- 
men  and  women  taxed  beyond  their  strength  to 
earn  enough  for  mere  subsistence;  when  clerks 
and  bookkeepers,  insufficiently  paid,  toil  till  life 
is  a  burden,  and  then  in  many  cases  are  advised 
by  their  employers  to  supplement  their  paltry 
income  by  lives  of  vice;  when  these  conditions 
prevail  upon  the  one  hand,  while  upon  the  other 
our  national  wealth  is  increasing  by  billions  a 
year;  and  wlien  in  order  to  pour  that  increase 
into  the  hands  of  a  few,  the  prices  of  the  prime 
necessities  are  being  forced  higlier  and  higher, 
when  these  conditions  exist,  surely  no  one  can 
say  that  the  social  problem  has  been  solved,  or 
that  the  principles  of  the  gospel  have  been  so  ap- 
plied as  to  produce  ideal  social  conditions. 

Or,  taking  another  view,  when  in  many  of  the 
great  cities  of  our  nation  there  is  an  organized 
traffic  in  social  vice,  carried  on  to  the  extent  of 
the  debauching  and  ruining  of  thousands  of  in- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL        173 

nocent  aud  unsuspecting  girls  every  year;  when 
the  traffic  iu  the  lives,  the  souls,  and  the  bodies 
of  men  through  the  liquor  business  is  carried  on 
under  authority  to  the  extent  that  this  one  busi- 
ness, whost  chief  effect  is  to  ruin  character,  de- 
spoil the  home,  fill  the  jail,  the  poor-house,  and 
the  as^'lum ;  when  this  business  of  ruin  is  carried 
on  to  the  extent  that  it  is  the  largest  single 
business  in  the  land;  when  political  parties 
claiming  honor  aud  respectability  not  only  have 
the  hardihood  to  allow  these  things,  but  actually 
get  the  endorsement  of  a  majority  of  the  people 
to  this  awful  carnage  of  crime,  under  these  con- 
ditions, surely  no  one  will  say  that  the  social 
problem  has  been  solved,  or  that  the  gospel  has 
been  so  applied  as  to  produce  ideal  conditions. 
Mention  is  made  of  conditions  only  as  they  ex- 
ist in  our  own  land,  with  the  full  knowledge  that 
in  other  lands  social  conditions  are  vastly  more 
unfavorable  than  with  us. 

In  view  of  these  conditions,  and  in  view  of 
the  great  light  that  the  gos])el  has  thrown  upon 
the  question  of  the  rights  and  the  possibilities 


174  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

before  human  society,  it  is  not  strange  that  men 
become  restless,  and  demand  action  that  will  re- 
sult in  the  abolition  of  this  carnage  of  injustice, 
vice,  and  crime.  Nor  is  it  strange  that  men, 
seeing  the  church  with  the  torch  of  truth,  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  gospel  of  human 
equality,  of  human  rights  in  its  hands — it  is  not 
strange  that  there  are  those  who  seeing  this, 
conceive  that  the  church  is  not  doing  its  full 
duty  in  the  interests  of  society  to-day. 

But  we  need  to  be  careful  in  our  judgment  in 
this  relation.  Attention  must  be  given  to  the 
great  good  that  has  been  done  by  the  help  of  the 
light  that  the  gospel  affords,  and  then  it  may  be 
proper  to  decide  whether  the  cliurch  merits 
blame  for  its  attitude  to-day. 

The  social  problem  is  by  no  means  a  modern 
one.  It  is  as  old  as  human  history.  On  almost 
the  first  page  of  history  is  the  story  of  a  brother 
who,  regardless  of  liis  brother's  rights,  took  his 
life;  then  to  the  inquiry,  "Where  is  thy  brother?" 
he  returned   the  heartless  answer,   "Am   T   my 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL        175 

brother's  keeper?"  The  social  problem  dates 
back  at  least  to  the  jealousy  of  Cain. 

Not  only  is  the  problem  an  old  one,  but  it  is, 
and  always  has  been,  a  very  aggravated  one.  As 
presented  from  the  industrial  side,  it  is  to-day  a 
very  vexing  one,  but  not  nearly  so  much  as  it 
was  in  ages  past. 

For  thousands  of  years  the  social  problem 
from  the  industrial  side  involved  the  curse  of  hu- 
man slavery.  The  monuments  of  Egypt  and  the 
ruins  of  Babylon  bear  witness  to  the  existence  of 
slavery  in  its  severest  forms  in  each  of  those  na- 
tions. The  Jews  held  slaves  until  the  exile  in  Baby- 
lon, though  slavery  as  practiced  by  them  was  in  a 
modified  form,  the  slaves  being  given  the  priv- 
ilege of  complete  manumission  at  certain  periods. 
Slavery  was  practiced  by  all,  or  nearly  all  the 
nations  of  antiquity.  It  existed  in  Greece  and 
Eome  for  centuries  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era.  Almost  two-thirds  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Rome  in  the  days  of  the  empire  were 
slaves.  Slavery  was  transmitted  down  through 
the  ages,  even  being  brought  to  our  own  country, 


176  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

where  it  continued  till  after  the  middle  of  the 
last  century. 

While  in  many  respects  the  condition  of  the 
laboring  masses  to-day  calls  for  vast  improve- 
ment, their  condition  generally  is  vastly  better 
than  was  that  of  the  slaves,  so  much  better  that 
comparison  can  scarcely  be  made.  Not  only  this, 
but  so  long  as  slavery  as  an  industrial  system 
was  continued,  it  was  impossible  to  elevate  labor 
to  the  plane  of  respectability  and  honor.  In  our 
own  country  and  in  England  as  well,  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery  meant  not  only  the  freeing  of  the 
individual  slave,  or  the  black  race,  but  it  meant 
the  elevation  of  labor  to  a  position  of  honor  and 
respectability  unknown  and  impossible  before; 
the  recognition  of  the  laborer  as  upon  the  same 
plane  as  every  other  man. 

But  how  was  the  abolition  of  slavery  accom- 
plished? By  some  it  is  denied  that  it  was  ac- 
complished in  any  sense  through  the  agency  of 
the  churcli,  for  the  reason  that  the  Scriptures  do 
not  in  so  many  words  forbid  it,  and  the  further 
reason  that  for  more  than  two  centuries  it  ex- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL         177 

isted  in  our  own  country  largely  with  the  en- 
dorsement of  the  church. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  the  church,  as  an  insti- 
tution, effected  the  overthrow  of  slavery,  but 
that  the  gospel  as  preached  and  presented  by  the 
church  did.  It  was  this,  the  promulgation  of 
the  gospel  of  Christ,  the  gospel  of  human  broth- 
erhood, that  brought  freedom  to  the  slaves. 

Here  it  is  proper  to  speak  more  particularly 
of  the  relation  of  the  church  to  the  social  problem, 
the  visible  church,  looking  upon  it  as  a  divinely 
established  institution.  That  is,  the  church  was 
not  established  for  the  direct  purpose  of  over- 
throwing slavery,  or  for  putting  away  any  other 
single,  distinct  form  of  social  evil,  great  as  these 
evils  are.  If  it  were,  it  would  be  inconceivable 
that  any  of  these  forms  of  evil  should  be  found 
in,  or  in  any  way  connected  with  the  church,  un- 
less the  church  has  become  entirely  apostate. 
Then,  too,  we  would  have  good  reason  for  de- 
nouncing ancient  Judaism,  the  church  of  the 
Mosaic  dispensation,  as  an  entire  fraud,  because 
the  Jews  held  slaves  under  some  form  for  prob- 


178  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

ably  nearly  a  thousand  years.  Then,  too,  we 
might  well  be  surprised  to  find  New  Testament 
writers  advising  the  slaves  to  obey  their  masters ; 
and  we  might  well  be  horrified  at  the  Apostle 
Paul  advising  the  slave,  Onesimus,  to  return  to 
his  master,  Philemon,  and  sending  to  Philemon 
a  letter  requesting  him  to  receive  back  Onesimus 
kindly,  all  of  which  we  do  find. 

But  it  may  be  asked  in  surprise,  "If  the  mis- 
sion of  the  church  is  not  to  overthrow  such  a 
diabolical  institution  as  human  slavery  and  kin- 
dred social  evils,  then  pray  what  is  its  mission? 
especially  what  is  its  mission  to  man  as  a  social 
being? 

In  order  to  reach  an  answer  to  this  very  ap- 
propriate question  it  must  be  recognized  first 
of  all  that  the  church  is  not  an  organization  com- 
posed of  people  living  outside  of  and  apart  from 
human  society,  and  from  the  conditions  present 
in  human  society,  intended  to  stand  as  an  ex- 
ternal reformatory  force;  but  it  is  an  organiza- 
tion composed  of  people  who  are  themselves 
members  of  society,  effected  in  their  manner  of 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL         179 

living,  in  their  modes  of  thinking  and  acting,  in 
their  personal  lives  and  characters  by  conditions 
around  them  and  under  which  they  live.  One  of 
the  fundamental  beliefs  of  the  church  is  that  all 
men  are  sinners,  sinners  against  God,  and  sin- 
ners against  their  fellow-men.  And  the  church  in- 
cludes itself  and  its  own  members  in  this  same 
category.  Not  a  body  of  men  and  women  perfect 
in  thinking  or  jjerfect  in  acting,  and  trying  to 
bring  others  to  their  standard  of  perfection.  But 
a  body  of  sinners  trusting  Jesus  Christ  for  sal- 
vation and  in  process  of  training  and  develop- 
ment to  lives  of  actual  righteousness. 

What,  then,  is  the  distinct  mission  of  the 
church,  as  it  relates  to  human  society  at  large, 
if  it  is  not  to  overthrow  and  put  away  the 
social  evils  that  effect  society? 

The  distinct  mission  of  the  church  is  that 
which  our  Lord  expressed  in  what  is  termed  "The 
Great  Commission,"  that  is,  to  preach  and  teach 
the  gospel;  to  preach  and  teach  the  principles 
of  the  gospel  as  they  relate  to  both  the  God-ward 
and  the  man-ward  side  of  human  life,  with  a 


180  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

Yie^y  to  having  these  principles  accepted  and 
practiced  in  the  lives  of  men.  That  through  the 
acceptance  and  practice  of  these  principles  two 
ends,  viewed  from  the  social  side,  niay  be  accom- 
plished : 

First,  that  the  individual  may,  in  answer  to 
his  willing  acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ,  be  saved 
to  a  life  of  progressive  development  here. 

Second,  that  through  the  promulgation,  ac- 
ceptance, and  willing  practice  of  these  principles, 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  is  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness,  equity,  and  peace,  may  be  estab- 
lished and  progressively  promoted  iu  human 
societ3\ 

This  is  as  truly  the.  mission  and  work  of  the 
church  as  is  its  mission  to  help  men  prepare  for 
the  future  life.  In  a  very  iini)ortant  sense  the 
very  life  of  tlie  church  depends  upon  the  church 
seeing  more  clearly  and  fulfilling  more  largely 
this  phase  of  her  mission.  This  is  in  full  har- 
mony Avith  one  of  the  latest  statements  of  Doctor 
Eucken,  of  Cermany,  one  of  the  greatest  theo- 
logians and  Christian  philosophers  of  our  day. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL         181 

He  says,  "The  mainteuauce  of  Christianity  re- 
quires considerable  changes  in  its  traditional 
form.  Religion  nnist  enter  into  closer  touch 
with  human  activity  and  at  the  same  time  he- 
come  a  more  j^owerful  leaven  in  tlie  world,  .  .  . 
deeply  rooted  in  the  life-process  and  revealing 
itself  in  this  process." 

The  church,  speaking  of  it  more  particularly 
as  an  organized  institution,  viewed  from  the  so- 
cial side,  has,  as  it  relates  to  the  great  task  of 
promoting  social  weal,  or  as  Doctor  Eucken 
would  say,  the  task  of  relating  itself  to,  so  as  to 
reveal  its  religion  "in  the  life  process,"  a  two- 
fold problem  or  mission : 

First,  to  gather  from  human  society  at  large 
a  body  of  people  who  desire,  by  the  acceptance 
and  practice  of  the  life  and  principles  of  the 
gospel,  to  develop  into  lives  of  social  righteous- 
ness. Hence  the  wrong  living  of  these  themselves 
has  to  be  corrected.  Hence  it  is  that  there  are 
in  the  church  men  who,  while  professing  to  seek 
a  better  life,  themselves  live  in  the  toleration 


182  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

and   practice  of  evils  siicli  as  human  slavery, 
liquor  selling  and  drunkard  making. 

The  church  has  a  second  mission — to  publisli 
abroad  the  gospel  of  Christ  which  carries  in  it- 
self the  principles  of  social  equality,  which,  as 
they  are  accepted  and  put  into  practice  will  lead 
the  individual  and  society  at  large  away  from 
the  evils  that  have  cursed  and  still  do  curse 
society. 

Expressing  the  idea  more  briefly : 
The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not,  properly 
speaking,  a  direct,  but  an  indirect  agency  of 
social  reform;  it  is  a  propaganda.  It  is  not  an 
organization  whose  mission  it  is  to  compel  men 
to  accept  and  practice  the  principles  which  it 
teaches.  It  is  an  agency  whose  mission  as  it  re- 
lates to  society,  is  to  propagate,  to  disseminate 
fundamental  social  principles,  which  themselves, 
blessed  of  God,  vitalize  human  thought  and  life, 
and  work  out  the  great  social  reforms  of  which 
society  has  so  long  been  in  need,  and  many  of 
which  are  still  so  greatly  needed. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL         183 

But  it  may  be  objected:  Admitting  that  this 
is  true,  then  the  church  as  an  agency  of  social 
reform  is  too  indirect,  and  hence  moves  too 
slowly;  hence  some  form  of  organization  should 
be  effected  that  will  operate  more  immediately 
and  directly. 

To  this  several  answers  are  to  be  made. 

It  may  be,  and  very  probably  is  true  of  the 
church  that  being  composed  as  it  is,  not  of  a 
picked  class  of  people,  but  of  people  from  all 
classes,  the  young  and  the  old,  the  learned  and 
the  unlearned,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  radical 
and  the  conservative,  the  selfish  and  the  unself- 
ish, and  being  surrounded  by  conditions  that  do 
not  always  favor  aggressive  action,  hindered 
many  times  by  men  and  women  who  seek  the 
cover  of  the  church  to  hide  their  own  selfishness, 
and  take  advantage  of  the  machinery  of  the 
church  to  promote  their  own  purposes — it  may 
be  and  very  certainly  is  true  that  the  church  has 
not  been  as  vigorous  and  hence  not  as  helpful  in 
lipplying  the  principles  of  the  gospel  to  the  solu- 


184  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

lion  of  great  social  problems  as  it  should  have 
been. 

It  should  also  be  answered  that  the  church 
makes  no  objection  to  the  organization  and  pro- 
motion of  auxiliary  agencies  to  assist  in  the 
practical  application  of  these  principles.  On 
this  point  the  chnrch  simply  holds  that  in  order 
to  effective  operation  of  such  auxiliary  agencies, 
it  is  necessary  that  they  adhere  closely  to  the 
fundamental  principles  laid  down  in  the  gospel 
itself. 

The  church  raises  no  objection  to  the  organ- 
ization of  society  for  governmental  purposes.  In- 
deed it  hails  with  delight  such  organization,  not 
always  approving  in  full  the  plans  of  organiza- 
tion, but  recognizing  them  as  of  value.  With 
the  exception  of  some  bodies  of  the  church  that 
have  upon  them  the  shackles  imposed  by  semi- 
pagan,  mediaeval  nations,  the  church  hails  with 
delight  the  complete  separation  between  the 
church  and  institutions  of  political  government. 
The  church  raises  no  objection  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  political   parties,   leagues,  or  societies, 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL         185 


that  have  as  their  purpose  the  promotion  of 
special  phases  of  social  reform,  so  long  as  the}' 
are  of  practical  value.  But  the  church  insists 
that  all  such  organizations  can  work  effectively 
only  as  they  work  in  harmony  with  and  for  tlie 
application  of  the  fundamental  social  principles 
taught  in  the  gospel. 

There  is  still  one  more  answer  to  the  objec- 
tion that  the  church  moves  too  slowly,  a  most 
important  phase  of  the  answer. 

It  is  found  in  part  in  the  fact  already  stated, 
that  the  problem  of  social  weal  is  a  very  old  one, 
dating  back  to  the  very  dawn  of  history.  It  is 
found  in  part  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  universal 
problem,  though  not  always  the  same  in  all 
places;  not  the  same  at  all  times;  but  yet  a  ques- 
tion universal  to  the  race.  There  is  no  people, 
nor  language,  nor  tong-ue,  where  it  does  not  ex- 
ist, or  where  it  has  been  fully  solved. 

But  this  is  not  the  worst.  It  is  a  problem 
that  has  existed,  and  still  exists,  not  because  of 
peculiar  political  conditions;  not  because  of  pe- 
culiar theories  of  political  economy;  not  because 


186  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

of  peculiar  religions  conditions.  None  of  these 
somewhat  accidental  conditions  is  the  occasion 
of  this  problem.  It  exists  because  of  wrong  con- 
ceptions, and  wrong  purposes,  and  wrong  mo- 
tives in  men,  in  the  human  heart  universal. 

Some  lay  the  responsibility  wholly  upon  the 
rich ;  the  rich  are  to  blame,  but  the  poor  as  well. 
Some  blame  it  upon  the  ruling  classes  as  some 
are  termed;  it  has  its  seat  with  them,  but  with 
the  ruled  as  well.  Some  blame  it  upon  the  em- 
ployer, but  it  is  chargeable  to  the  employe  as 
well.  No  better  proof  of  this  is  needed  than 
the  fact  that  when  by  the  turn  of  the  wheel  of 
fortune  the  employer  and  the  employe  exchange 
places,  the  problem  remains  as  large  as  it  was 
before. 

Some  blame  it  upon  the  church.  Surely  the 
church  must  take  its  share  of  the  blame;  but  it 
rests  as  well  upon  those  outside  the  church. 
Some  blame  it  upon  the  preachers;  they  must 
take  their  share,  but  the  laity  theirs  as  well. 
The  fact  is  that  none  have  yet  come  to  ideal  char- 
0cter  or  life,  and  hence  all  must  share  the  blame 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL        187 

for  social  disorder.  The  basis  of  the  problem  is 
in  the  wrong  conceptions,  wrong  purposes,  wrong 
motives  of  men,  and  it  can  be  changed  only  as 
their  conceptions  change. 

Here,  then,  is  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that 
the  work  of  the  church  for  social  betterment 
goes  so  slow.  The  problem  is  a  universal  one; 
it  grows  out  of  wrong  conditions  in  the  hearts  of 
men;  it  is  aggravated  by  all  the  inherited  mis- 
conceptions, prejudices,  jealousies,  greed,  lazi- 
ness, wickedness,  selfishness  of  the  centuries  past. 
It  is  a  problem  that  can  be  solved  in  its  com- 
pleteness, not  by  simply  establishing  some  new 
political  conditions;  not  by  fixing  a  more  equi- 
table scale  of  wages;  not  by  establishing  a  new 
basis  or  system  of  property  ownership;  not  by 
enlarging  or  extending  the  political  franchise; 
not  by  simply  putting  some  out  and  others  in. 
All  these  may  be  external  steps  in  the  process  of 
the  solution. 

But  all  of  these  may  be  done,  and  immedi- 
ately, or  in  a  very  short  time,  the  social  problem 
will  be  as  aggravated  as  it  is  to-day. 


188  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

There  is  but  one  plan  or  condition  of  a  hope- 
ful solution  of  the  social  problem,  not  of  to-day, 
not  of  our  country,  not  of  our  people,  but  of  the 
ages  and  of  the  race.  That  is,  by  the  promulga- 
tion and  general  acceptance  and  practice  of  the 
principles  of  social  well-being  expressed  in  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  successive  steps  in  the 
process  of  solution  will  not  bring  successive 
stages  of  relief ;  but  only  as  along  with  those  suc- 
cessive stages  these  fundamental  principles  are 
more  generally  understood,  accepted,  and  prac- 
ticed. It  is  simply  saying  that  the  teaching, 
acceptance,  and  practice  of  these  principles  must 
keep  ])ace  with,  if  not  in  advance  of,  the  taking 
of  these  successive  steps. 

The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  does  this  funda- 
mental work,  propagating  the  gospel,  influencing 
men  to  accept  and  practice  these  fundamental 
principles.  Hence  its  work  not  only  goes  slowly, 
but  is  of  a  character  that  it  is  not  readily  seen 
in   connection   with  the   immediate  solution   of 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  SOCIAL  WEAL         189 

these  problems.  It  is  work  done  at  the  founda- 
tions of  society. 

It  is  true  that  Paul  counseled  slaves  to  obey 
their  masters;  but  it  is  also  true  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  gospel  taught  by  Paul  and  by  the 
church  ever  since,  have  undermined  the  institu- 
tions of  slavery  until  to-day  it  is  unknown  In 
Christian  lands.  It  is  true  that  Christian  men 
have  served  their  country  on  the  field  of  battle; 
but  it  is  also  true  that  the  principles  of  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ  as  taught  by  the  church  are 
to-day  operating  to  the  practical  abolition  of  war. 

While  it  is  true  that  professed  Christian  men 
have  drunk  intoxicating  liquors,  and  some  of 
them  have  their  eyes  so  blinded  that  they  would 
even  put  the  bottle  to  their  neighbor's  lips  to 
make  him  drunk,  it  is  also  true  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  taught  by 
the  church  are  to-day  banishing  the  traffic  from 
Christian  lands. 

While  it  is  true  that  professed  Christian  men 
have  taken  advantage  of  commonly  accepted 
commercial  ideas  and  standards  to  advance  their 


190  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

own  financial  interests  greatly  to  the  disadvan- 
tage and  even  impoverishment  of  others,  yet  the 
church  has  ever  held  out  the  light  of  divine  truth 
that  teaches  that  justice  is  the  law  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  that  mercy  is  his  supreme  de- 
light. 

While  it  is  true  that  men  in  the  church  have 
without  doubt,  and  many  yet  do,  rob  the  hireling 
of  his  wages,  and  refuse  to  allow  him  what  is  his 
just  due,  yet  the  church  as  the  agency  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  has  held  forth  the  truth  of  the 
brotherhood  and  equal  essential  rights  of  all 
men,  sometimes  herself  being  blind  to  that  truth, 
until  to-day  it  is  taking  hold  of  the  lives  of  men 
and  nations,  changing  industrial  systems,  modi- 
fying social  ideas,  and  transforming  national 
politics. 

Yes,  the  church  may  move  slowly,  but  she 
carries  the  torch  that  lights  the  ages,  and  that 
will  ultimately  bring  to  practical  realization  the 
social  as  well  as  the  religious  weal  of  the  whole 
world. 


x 

LIFE   SPIRITUAL  AND   SERVICE   SOCIAL 


X. 

LIFE  SPIRITUAL  AND  SERVICE  SOCIAL 

"If  any  man  hath  not  the  spirit  of  Christ,  he  is  none 
of  his." 

"Let  this  mind  be  in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus." 

"Be  filled  with  the  Spirit."  —Paul. 

"Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven;  but  he  that  doeth  the 
will  of  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven." 

"I  was  hungry,  and  ye  gave  me  to  eat;  I  was  thirsty, 
and  ye  gave  me  drink;  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me 
in;  naked  and  ye  clothed  me;  I  was  sick,  and  ye  visited 
me;  I  was  in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto  me." 

"Go,  and  do  thou  likewise."  — Jesus. 

Paul  and  Jesus  do  not  in  these  words  set  forth 
two  different  types  of  Christian  life,  but  two 
phases  of  the  same  life;  the  inner  and  the  outer 
life ;  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  the  life  of  service ; 
two  phases  of  the  same  life.  We  shall  wholly  mis- 
understand the  teaching  of  both  Jesus  and  Paul 
throughout,  unless  we  keep  this  in  mind  as  a  fun- 
damental fact  in  all  of  their  teaching.  That  is, 
they  teach,  not  that  the  life  of  the  believer  is  a 
twofold  life,  but  that  it  is  one  life  having  a  two- 
fold phase,  the  inner  or  hidden  phase,  the  life  of 
the  spirit,  and  the  outer  or  manifest  pha^e,  the 
life  of  service. 

193 


194  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

Just  what,  in  actual  practice,  is  the  relation 
of  the  inner  life  of  the  spirit  to  the  outer  life  of 
service?  Are  they  in  any  sense  the  counterpart 
of  each  other?  Or,  is  one  in  any  sense  to  be 
looked  upon  as  a  substitute  for  the  other?  Or, 
can  one  in  any  sense  exist  without  the  other? 
Or,  is  one  in  any  sense  liable  to  be  detrimental  to 
the  other?  Or,  is  one  the  life,  of  which  the 
other  is  the  fruitage  and  proof?  Or,  do  they 
have  no  relation  at  all  to  each  other? 

Too  often  these  two  phases  of  life  have  been 
viewed  as  quite  separate  and  distinct,  one  from 
the  other ;  some  almost  to  the  extent  of  thinking 
or  implying  that  they  have  but  little  if  any  re- 
lation to  each  other. 

That  is,  while  it  is  expected  that  all  believers 
shall  externally  comply  with  certain  ritualistic 
and  moral  requirements,  the  latter  chiefly  of  a 
negative  character,  yet,  by  many,  the  entire  ques- 
tion of  one's  relation  to  God  and  duty  seems  to 
be  thought  to  turn  upon  his  inner  or  spiritual  at- 
titude; that  if  a  man  is  right  at  heart,  by  which 
has  been  meant  largely  if  he  is  a  professed  be- 


LIFE  SPIRITUAL  AND  SERVICE  SOCIAL         195 

liever,  belongs  to  the  cliureli  and  keeps  the  ordi- 
nances, either  his  external  life  will  by  that  fact 
be  properly  adjusted,  or  his  faults  or  sins  will  be 
mercifully  forgiven,  and  he  will  be  sure  of  eter- 
nal felicity  at  God's  right  hand.  By  all  of  which 
is  meant  that  if  one  supposes  that  he  is  right  at 
heart,  he  need  not  be  so  particular  as  to  his  outer 
life. 

From  another  side  there  has  come  the  idea 
that,  while  there  is  much  closer  relation  between 
the  inner  and  the  outer  life  than  has  just  been 
indicated,  yet  the  matter  of  chief  concern,  if  not 
of  sole  importance  in  the  Christian  life  is,  to 
lay  the  emphasis  on  the  spiritual  or  religious 
side ;  or  religion  and  the  religious  life  will  gravi- 
tate to  a  mere  interest  in  outer  or  external  activ- 
ities, as  it  is  said,  to  a  religion  of  doing. 

There  is  danger  of  mistake  on  both  sides  of 
this  phase  of  divine  teaching.  There  have  been 
great  mistakes  on  what  has  been  termed  the 
spiritual  side.  Men  have  thought  that  the  true 
Christian  life  is  the  life  given  wholly  to  spiritual 
meditation,  contemplation,  and  prayer.     Hence 


196  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

the  system  of  monasticisni ;  life  in  the  monastery 
and  tlie  nunnery;  a  life  of  seclusion,  a  shutting 
away  of  one's  self  from  what  are  supposed  to  be 
special  conditions  of  temptation,  that  thus  op- 
portunity may  be  had  for  devoting  time  and 
thought  to  meditation  and  prayer.  But  the  his- 
tory of  the  monasteiy  and  the  nunnery  falls  far 
short  of  proving  this  to  be  a  valuable  system. 
Equally  valueless  is  this  principle  when  applied 
apart  from  the  monastery.  God  made  man  to 
live  and  grow  and  thrive,  spiritually  as  well  as 
physically  and  mentally,  in  active  touch  and  fel- 
lowship with  the  busy  activites  of  life,  proper 
time,  of  course,  being  taken  for  private  medita- 
tion, study,  and  prayer. 

On  the  other  hand  men  and  women  interested 
in  social  welfare  have  undertaken  the  relief  and 
correction  of  unfavorable  conditions  through 
purely  social  means,  without  regard  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  inner  spiritual  life,  but  without  pro- 
nounced and  guaranteed  success. 

What,  then,  is  the  normal  relation  of  the  in- 
ner life  of  the  Spirit  and  the  outer  life  of  service? 


LIFE  SPIRITUAL  AND  SERVICE  SOCIAL         197 

We  have  no  better  illustrative  answer  to  this 
question  than  that  furnished  by  the  life  of  Jesus 
himself.  There  can  be  no  question  that  his  was 
a  Spirit-filled  life;  nor  that  he  was  always,  at 
one  time  as  much  as  another,  under  the  influence 
and  direction  of  the  Spirit.  Nor  can  there  be 
anj^  question  as  to  his  life  being  a  well  balanced 
life. 

What  do  we  learn  from  Jesus,  the  standard 
illustration,  as  to  the  relation  of  these  two 
phases  of  the  one  Christian  life,  the  one  phase 
known  as  the  spiritual,  the  other  as  the  outer 
or  service  life? 

In  this  relation  two  facts  stand  out  clear 
and  plain: 

First,  he  was  careful  to  keep  himself  con- 
stantly open  to  the  fountains  of  the  Spirit. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  Jesus  gave 
much  time  to  meditation  and  prayer ;  but  not  in 
any  such  sense  or  degree  as  to  indicate  that  his 
life  was  that  of  a  recluse  or  a  hermit.  The  Es- 
senes  were  monks  of  his  time  and  people,  but 
nothino-  indicated  that  he  was  one  of  them.     So 


11)8  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

fill'  removed  was  he  from  tliem,  so  ready  was  he 
to  minj^le  with  the  people  and  to  participate  iu 
the  social  pleasures  of  his  time,  that  his  enemies 
charji;ed  him  with  being-  "a  jj^lnttonous  man  and 
a  winebibber."  So  much  did  he  associate  with 
all  classes  of  people  that  he  was  denounced  as 
"a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners."  But  the 
i-ecord  of  his  prayer  life  is  sufficient  evidence 
that  alono;  with  all  else  that  he  did,  he  lived  a 
life  of  constant  fellowship  and  communion  with 
(lod,  and  thus  kept  his  soul  open  constantly  to 
<he  fountains  of  the  spiritual  life. 

The  second  fact  of  importance  is  that  Jesus 
gave  a  large  measure  of  time  and  attention  to 
activities  that  lay  directly  along  the  line  of  so- 
cial service. 

He  said  of  liimself  that  he  "came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto  but  to  minister";  not  to  be 
served  but  to  serve.  And  this  is  exemplified 
throughout  his  public  life.  Tlis  conduct  shows 
that  however  deeply  he  was  interested  in  the 
souls  of  men,  that  interest  was  not  of  such  a 
type  that  it  led  him  to  overlook  their  bodies,  or 


LIFE  SPIRITUAL  AND  SERVICE  SOCIAL         199 

their  present  physical  needs  in  any  relation.  If 
they  were  sick,  he  healed  them ;  if  they  were  crip- 
pled, he  restored  them;  if  they  were  blind,  he 
gave  them  sight ;  if  they  were  deaf,  he  gave  them 
hearing;  if  they  were  hungry,  he  fed  them.  So 
much  did  he  give  himself  to  helpful  service  that 
years  afterward,  Peter,  when  preaching  to  Cor- 
nelius of  the  life  of  Jesus,  did  not  speak  of  his 
wonderful  preaching,  nor  of  any  formal  system 
of  doctrines  that  he  taught,  nor  even  of  his  long 
nights  spent  in  prayer,  but  said  that  "God  an- 
ointed him  with  the  Hol}^  Spirit  and  with  power ; 
who  went  about  doing  good,  and  healing  all  that 
were  oppressed  of  the  devil;  for  God  was  with 
him," 

It  may  be  argued  that  he  did  this  as  a  means 
of  winning  and  holding  the  attention  of  the  peo- 
ple to  his  teaching.  Probably  that  is  a  part  of 
the  truth.  But  did  he  not  do  it  also  because  of 
his  compassion  for  men?  Because  the  life  of  the 
Spirit  in  him  impelled  him  to  such  acts  of  benef- 
icence toward  men?  May  it  not  be  that  he  did 
it  also  in  exemplification  of  the  type  of  life  and 


200  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SOCIAL  WEAL 

spirit  that  those  shall  possess  and  manifest  who 
are  indeed  his  followers?  That  thus  he  might 
show  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  while  it  is  a 
kingdom  characterized  by  deep  spirituality,  is 
also  a  kingdom  in  which  this  spirtuality  finds 
its  legitimate  expression  in  lives  of  unselfish 
service? 

However  we  may  explain  these  deeds  of  com- 
passion of  Jesus,  the  point  that  deserves  atten- 
tion is  that  the  spirituality  of  Jesus  found  ex- 
pression as  really  in  his  going  about  and  doing 
good  to  those  he  met,  as  it  did  when  he  was  en- 
gaged in  teaching  the  people,  or  when  he  was 
alone  with  God  in  prayer.  That  is,  Jesus  was 
as  really  and  as  intensely  spiritual  when  he  was 
feeding  the  hungry,  liealing  the  sick,  doing 
friendly,  helpful  service  for  those  about  him, 
as  he  was  when  he  was  preaching  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  or  having  his  evening's  interview 
with  Nicodemus.  May  it  not  be  truthfully  said 
that  those  deeds  of  loving  service  were  to  Jesus 
a  necessity  as  avenues  of  expression  of  liis  spirit- 
ual life? 


LIFE  SPIRITUAL  AND  SEEVIOE  SOCIAL         201 

This  is  not  saying  that  every  one  who  does 
deeds  of  kindness  is  in  heart  a  believer  in  Jesus, 
and  thus  a  partaker  of  the  higher  life  of  the 
Spirit;  but  it  is  saying  that  every  one  that  is 
truly  filled  with  the  Spirit  will  give  expression 
to  his  spirituality  in  deeds  of  loving,  helpful 
service.  There  is  no  warrant  in  the  life  of  Jesus 
for  thinking,  either,  that  the  life  of  service,  of 
organized,  systematic,  social  service,  is  in  any 
sense  inconsistent  with  the  highest  type  of  spir- 
ituality ;  or,  that  true  spirituality  can  exist  and 
be  maintained  without  such  service.  In  other 
words,  there  is  no  warrant  for  thinking  that  the 
truly  spiritual  man  will  give  attention  only  to 
what  are  conceived  to  be  the  distinctly  spiritual 
activities  of  the  Christian  life.  If  the  life  of  Je- 
sus is  to  be  taken  as  an  illustration  of  the  life 
that  his  disciples  should  live,  then  we  are  forced 
to  the  conclusion  that  he  who  does  not  yield  his 
life  up  to  genuine,  loving,  helpful,  social  service 
does  not  live  the  truly  spirtual  life. 


202  CHRISTIANITY   AND   SOCIAL   WEAL 

When  we  turn  from  a  study  of  the  life  of  Je- 
sus to  a  study  of  his  teachincj,  we  find  this  truth 
presented  with  stron^^est  emphasis. 

"Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord, 
Lord,"  that  is,  not  every  one  that  is  seemingly 
devout  in  the  distinctively  religions  activities, 
''shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he 
that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  who  is  in 
heaven." 

Many  seem  disposed  to  tliink  that  by  doing 
tlio  will  of  his  Father,  Jesiis  meant  simply  the 
formal  observance  of  religions  ordinances.  No 
doubt  he  did  mean  tliis,  so  far  as  these  ordi- 
nances are  of  divine  authority.  But  he  very  cer- 
tainly meant  vastly  more  than  that. 

"Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth." 

"Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world." 

"Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men  that  they 
may  see  your  good  works." 

"Love  your  enemies.  Do  good  to  them  that 
hate  you." 

"Give  to  him  that  asketh  of  thee." 


LIFE  SPIRITUAL  AND  SERVICE  SOCIAL        203 

"All  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  even  so  do  ye  also  unto  them." 

Read  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  and 
see  there  the  picture  that  he  draws  of  disinter- 
ested, helpful  sei'vice,  and  hear  him  sa}',  "Go, 
and  do  thou  likewise." 

Head  his  description  of  the  last  p^reat  a.ssize, 
as  he  gives  it  in  the  twenty-fifth  of  INIatthew, 
and  hear  him  say : 

"Come  ye  blessed  of  my  father,  inherit  the 
kingdom  j^repared  for  you  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world.  For  I  was  hungry,  and  ye  gave  me 
to  eat;  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink;  I 
was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  in;  naked  and 
ye  clothed  me;  I  was  sick,  and  ye  visited  me;  1 
was  in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto  me.  .  .  .  In- 
asmuch as  3'e  did  it  unto  one  of  these  my  breth- 
ren, even  these  least,  ye  did  it  unto  me."  The 
meaning  of  which  can  be  nothing  less  than  that 
the  only  spiritual  life  that  signifies  anything  be- 
fore him  and  the  Father  is  the  life  that  is  so 
charged  and  surcharged  with  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
that  it  is  compelled  by  that  very  spirituality  to 


204  CHRISTIANITY    AND   SOCIAL   WEAL 

seek  expression  in  active,  loving  service  of  fel- 
low-man. 

True,  Jesus  at  this  place  speaks  only  of  re- 
medial service,  helping  those  in  distress.  But 
the  principles  he  lays  down  embrace  constructive 
as  well  as  remedial  service. 

To-day  we  are  seeing  and  seeing  clearly  that 
along  with  the  call  for  the  relieving  of  and  car- 
ing for  the  unfortunate  who  fall  among  thieves 
on  the  Jericho  road,  there  is  the  eijually  loud 
call  to  rout  the  thieves  and  clear  up  the  road 
so  that  it  will  be  safe  for  any  one  at  any  time 
to  travel.  While  there  is  call  to  feed  the  hungry, 
clotlie  the  naked,  and  visit  the  sick  and  the  in- 
carcerated, there  is  equally  loud  call  to  correct 
social  conditions  so  as  to  banish  unnecessary 
hunger ;  do  away  with  unnecessary  lack  of  cloth- 
ing; put  away  the  causes  that  breed  sickness  and 
crime;  and  reform  the  prisons  so  that  while  they 
are  places  of  restraint  they  are  also  institutions 
of  reform,  instead  of  being  dens  of  vice,  and  in- 
struments of  revenge. 


LIFE  SPIRITUAL  AND  SERVICE  SOCIAL        205 

Of  course  believers  shall  not  diminish  by  a 
whit  their  efforts  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  last 
man  that  is  destitute  of  its  healing  truth,  they 
must  vastly  increase  this  effort;  nor  shall  they 
seek  any  less  by  prayer  and  meditation  to  keep 
open  their  souls  to  the  fountains  of  the  spiritual 
life;  this,  too,  should  be  increased;  but  surely, 
in  order  to  give  this  spiritual  life  adequate  ex- 
])ression,  in  order  to  give  adequate  expression 
to  the  full  purpose  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  the 
followers  of  Jesus  must  to  larger  degree  than 
has  ever  yet  prevailed,  lay  their  hands  to  the 
great  work  of  remedial  and  constructive  social 
service,  so  that  not  only  the  bruised  and  needy 
may  be  cared  for,  but  that  the  pirates  that  prey 
upon  human  life  and  happiness,  in  the  form  of 
greedy  and  selfish  men  and  women  as  pi'omoters 
of  poverty,  sickness,  vice,  and  crime,  may  be 
abolished  from  human  society. 

Thank  God,  there  is  an  increasing  awakening 
and  activity  in  these  relations,  as  is  evidenced 
by  the  many  forms  of  reformatory  activity  in 
evidence  throughout  our  nation.     Political  re- 


206  CHRISTIANITY   AND   SOCIAL   WEAL 

loriu,  industrial  reform,  coiiiiueieial  reform;  in- 
stitutions for  the  abolition  of  vice  and  crime;  in- 
stitutions seeking  the  abolition  of  the  traffic  In 
intoxicating  liquors  and  in  womanly  virtue; 
movements  for  prison  reform ;  conferences  of 
charities  and  corrections;  social  purity  leagues; 
their  name  is  legion,  all  evidencing  the  fact  that 
tlie  center  of  gravity  for  public  concern  is  indeed 
shifting  from  supreme  interest  in  property,  in 
wealth,  in  political  preferment,  to  concern  for 
and  interest  in  the  great  questions  of  human 
well-being. 

Whence  does  it  all  come?  Nothing  like  it 
known  to  the  nations  of  antiquity  in  their  palm- 
iest days.  It  is  a  child  of  Christian  birth,  led 
up  to  by  the  church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  product  of  the  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus 
himself.  It  is  a  striking  evidence  that  the  gov- 
ernment, the  reign  of  Jesus  C^hrist  is  increasing, 
a  promise  of  the  ultimate  fulfillment  of  the  opti- 
mistic conviction  of  Isaiah,  "Of  the  increase  of 
his  government  and  of  peace  there  shall  be  no 
end.     .     .     .     The  zeal  of  Jehovah  of  hosts  will 


LIFE  SPIlilTUAL  AND  SERVICE  SOCIAL        207 

perform  this."  The  truth  taught  by  Jesus  is 
sinking  deep  into  the  hearts  of  men;  his  spirit 
is  permeating  more  fully  human  society;  his 
kingdom  of  righteousness  is  coming  in  larger 
measure. 

How  great,  then,  is  the  responsibility  that 
rests  upon  the  body  of  God's  people,  the  visible 
representatives  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  In 
them  this  spirit  of  larger  brotherhood  has  been 
born.  Under  their  nurturing  this  spirit  of  serv- 
ice has  been  fostered  and  developed.  And  under 
their  care  and  activity  it  must  be  maintained 
and  made  worldwide.  Not  that  they  shall  as- 
sume the  attitude  of  control;  they  must  do  a 
deeper,  a  more  important  task.  They  must  them- 
selves possess,  exhibit,  and  give  forth  the  spirit 
that  shall  by  its  own  intangible  presence  and 
power  vitalize  the  entire  social  fabric,  and  thus 
dominate  through  spirtual  forces  all  the  great 
movements  for  social  betterment.  This  must  be, 
or  the  great  social  movements  will  ultimately 
descend  to  the  plane  of  mere  systems  of  experi- 
mentation with  social  conditions  and  principles, 


208  CHRISTIANITY    AND   SOCIAL   WEAL 

devoid  of  the  life  necessary  to  give  the  energy 
ncessary  to  efficiency. 

In  order  to  this,  believers  must  "be  filled  with 
tlie  Spirit."  There  is  no  question  that  this  is  a 
necessity  in  order  to  effective  work  in  evangel- 
ism, the  publishing  of  the  gospel  for  winning  men 
and  women  to  Jesus  Christ.  But  it  is  none  the 
less  necessary  in  order  to  efficiency  in  the  great 
task  of  social  regeneration  and  salvation.  Just 
as  the  written  word  must  furnish  the  basis  of 
truth  upon  which  this  great  task  is  to  be  wrought 
out,  so  the  Spirit  of  God  must  furnish  the  im- 
pulse, the  strength,  the  unselfish  devotion  neces- 
sary to  the  working  out  of  the  task.  In  other 
words,  those  who  profess  the  name  of  Jesus  must 
yield  to  the  indwelling  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  he  impels  out  to  the  life  of  remedial  and  con- 
structive social  service.  Tlius  and  thus  alone 
will  the  church  be  able  to  contribute  to  making 
'•the  wilderness  and  tlie  dry  land  be  glad,  and 
the  desert  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose." 


BX9878.5.K38 

Christianity  and  the  social  weal. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 

III! 


1    1012  00044  8797 


